Whispers from the Shadows: An A Jedi in Azeroth Tale
by Ragingcyclone
Summary: The fifth installment of the A Jedi in Azeroth series. Native Force sensitives are found with ties to the ancient sith on Azeroth. A human plagued by nightmares from his past and a troll that has been trained by a dark master, can either hear the whispers from their shadows and discover their destined paths before the Burning Legion returns to annihilate Azeroth?
1. Prelude: Incident in Silithus

**_Incident in Silithus_**

"What is that smell?" the woman said as she scrunched her nose. Glancing to her left at her companion, the draenei paladin with flowing gold locks took a step back towards the entrance of the dark cave carefully placing her hooves around the scattered animal bones on the ground. Shadows danced on the walls cast from the flames of their torches. "I think Rockjaw was the smartest of us when he refused to enter this cave."

Joining the elegantly beautiful paladin stood an orc with spiked black hair and an eye patch over his right eye. He perused their surroundings with the remaining blue one while trying and failing to hold his breath. "These bones are not the source of the odor. They are too old and no flesh remains to provide this level of rancid decay. Something else is in this cave…but I don't think anything living."

"Rockjaw's reaction would suggest otherwise, Grok."

"Lakuu, his sense of smell is much more sensitive than ours," the orc replied taking a step closer to the rear of the cave. "Besides…the information I received reported that the creatures that once inhabited this region were destroyed several years ago."

"Wait a sec," she said grabbing his shoulder and stopping his progress. "You asked me here on a hunting trip? When you told me about this quest of yours it sounded more like solving a mystery than…"

"It _is_ a mystery," he responded looking into her eyes. "Back in Mulgore I overheard these shamans talking about this strange creature that had attacked one of their villages. What they described was unlike any beast I have ever encountered on this world or in Outland. They spoke of two others…one in Ashenvale and another in dwarven lands. Only the three and yet no sign of others since. I originally chalked their tales as some sort of over exaggeration of some hunting trip one or the other had been involved with in the past. Then I heard about one of their warriors who joined this cult up in Northrend, and that cult had operated in this area around the same time as these strange creatures showed up. Still seems like a tall tale but I figured something worthy of investigation."

"This is a hunting trip," the draenei sighed. "Look, Blue Eye, if you wanted to get me alone all you had to do was ask…and bring me to some place more pleasant than this," she said with a wave of her hand at the dark and musty cave. Something in the dancing shadows of the wall caught her attention. "Grok, is that a door?"

"Caves don't have doors, Lakuu," he answered with a pinch of his nose.

"This one does," the draenei retorted as she pointed with her free hand. "See…there in the back I swear that is a door leading further into the mountain."

The orc stepped towards the back wall where his partner pointed, and reaching out he found the seams of a doorway. He handed his torch to the paladin. Placing both hands in the middle he pushed until the left side creaked open. A stale odor assaulted the pair's senses this time from whatever lay beyond in the darkness. He glanced back to the draenei and retrieved his torch, and with a nod he proceeded to open the door completely to reveal a long dark corridor. Their torches only lit the immediate area, and what they saw bewildered them both. The hallway before them appeared more metallic than stone and along both sides for as far as the illumination allowed lined more doors to either rooms or adjacent corridors. The orc released a long whistle.

"Ok," the paladin whispered. "If this started as a hunting trip it isn't any longer. What is this place?"

"Not a clue," he answered back. "I expected something…but…" His voice trailed off.

"But? But what?"

"When we found the cave I half expected to find a massive set of caverns and that mostly because the animals described stood some twenty to thirty feet tall. The cave gave every indication they might have been here at one time with all of the bones we walked through, but this…this indicates people lived here and not in fear of these giant creatures."

"Maybe they used them as guards," Lakuu offered as she stepped closer behind Grok. "It smells abandoned like the old ruins in Ulduar or Uldum. When the creatures were destroyed whoever lived here must've left for safer territory. Would make sense to me, especially since silithids still prowl this region and they are dangerous even with guards."

The couple walked slowly through the dark tunnel. Some doors they tried to open but found them locked or blocked from the other side. After a hundred yards they emerged into a large room with a single statue in the center and a sarcophagus by the base. They looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders before approaching the statue. The face appeared human-like but with strange tendrils along the chin and jawline. Dark scorches marred the stone surface of the face and upper torso which appeared as some strange and alien form of clothing in a style neither had ever seen in all their travels across the surface of Azeroth or in Outland. Grok bent lower to examine the lid of the coffin which lay askew while Lakuu stood up as high as she could to more closely examine the strange face.

"This…this is a tomb," the orc said quietly. "But looks like someone robbed it long ago. There's no body in this sarcophagus and no gold or treasures in the room like I have seen in other burial sites."

"I bet the rooms along the corridor from the cave housed those treasures," the draenei added. "But this depiction is very strange. Have you ever seen a person like this? I mean with these things on his face? Too bad someone vandalized it; I would have liked to see it without all this damage."

The orc looked up from the lid of the coffin and perused the rest of the room a second time. In the dancing shadows he spotted something on the wall near the rear of the room. "Lakuu...look," he said with a nod of his chin. "Another door. Just what have we discovered here?"

"I'm not sure," she said standing back from the statue. "Perhaps there are more tombs further in? An ancient burial site for an extinct race and this mountain houses the only remnants of their civilization?"

"I don't think so," he replied. "If that were the case then whoever did rob this grave would have claimed their discovery long ago. Imagine the riches and notoriety for a person who discovers a find like this. I mean…the Explorer's League would pay unthinkable amounts of gold just to come here and study this place."

"So should we see what lies beyond that door?"

"Not just the two of us," he answered. "I think we need your crew for this one. If this is a network of tombs and goes much further into the mountain…I bet there are traps to protect them from grave robbers. Those creatures we came to find...if they were the outer guardians and are now extinct like these people then I would assume they also took precautions. Knowing that someday their guardians would die, they would leave traps to protect this place from interlopers. It's what I would do."

"But you said these creatures were destroyed in recent years," Lakuu muttered. "Something is very odd about all of this." She hesitated a moment drawing Grok's attention from the door. "I agree…we need more than just the two of us."

With a nod to each other the couple traversed the corridor to the cave and then emerged back outside the base of the mountain. Grok cocked his head to the side when they found Rockjaw asleep near the entrance. He tried to wake his faithful companion several times, but with no success. While he knelt next to the slumbering beast and the draenei stood beside him, a night elf emerged from behind one of the dead trees several yards away. The sudden appearance of the woman startled the couple, and he reached for the bow strapped to his back while the paladin pulled her hammer and held it in both hands. The kaldorei woman remained calm as she faced them. Her light violet skin contrasted sharply with the dark brown robes she wore. The style of her clothing roughly resembled the same worn by the person depicted by the statue in the tomb. A sword hilt with no discernable blade hung from her waist by her left hand. More bizarre, however, were the woman's eyes. Most night elves' eyes glowed a silvery or golden hue, but this woman's were a vibrant blue. Purple star shaped tattoos surrounded the orbs.

"Why are you here?" she asked with a melodious voice both calm yet commanding. "You should not be in this place…no one should."

"What have you done to Rockjaw?" Grok demanded.

"The creature simply sleeps," the kaldorei answered. "It is unharmed. I ask again…why are you here?"

"We came seeking strange creatures told of in Ashenvale," Lakuu offered drawing a glare from the orc. She ignored him as she addressed the strange night elf. "We were told they came from this region."

"Neither the terentateks nor the leviathans pose a threat any longer," the strange woman answered. "My master disposed of those years ago and none remain to endanger others. You have come here so seek that which no longer exists."

"Like the person once buried in the tomb?" Grok asked. The kaldorei cocked her head to the right and stared directly at him. He found her eyes even more unnerving once they focused on him. "The statue depicts a man of a race no longer walking the face of this world or Outland."

"Illiana removed the body of her father so that he could be buried in Northrend next to her mother as was her last request," the night elf replied. She took a step towards them yet still refrained from grasping the hilt which appeared to be the only weapon she possessed. Grok and Lakuu reacted by each taking a step back and crouching into battle ready stances. "If you ventured that far into the fortress…how much deeper did you explore? There are secrets within that no Azerothian outside the Order or the dragon flights should know. Only my master and the dragon queen have ventured beyond the burial chamber of Narcis."

"Alexstrazsa?" Lakuu asked. "Just how do you know the mother of the red dragons? Who are you?"

"I am Adaria," the woman answered looking now at the draenei. "Padawan to the jedi grand master, Daneel, and it was she who ventured with him into the depths of this Titan facility several years ago after defeating the leviathans. I was personally involved with them as well as the other jedi when they stopped Illiana from destroying the Sunwell. After we defeated the Burning Legion in Desolace I became Daneel's apprentice. I have come here to close the entrance to this fortress and contain the secrets within from discovery. Your presence makes my task a little more difficult."

Grok glanced over his shoulder at Lakuu and whispered, "She's with that cult in the north I mentioned earlier, though I never heard of any battle with the Legion in Desolace. She might be a little delusional."

"And just who gives you the right to keep this place secret from the rest of the world?" the draenei asked the jedi. "We know what is inside and we will tell the rest of the world."

"I am afraid I cannot allow that to happen," Adaria responded with a wave of her hand. Both the orc and the draenei collapsed to the ground in slumber, their weapons clattering to the ground. The jedi padawan walked up to the sleeping couple and then knelt beside them. "I am sorry to do this as I mean neither of you any harm. I sense no malice from you." She stood back up and again waved her hand above the two on the ground. "When you wake you will remember nothing of what you saw inside or of our conversation. You will see no cave and the mystery you came here to solve will unfortunately remain one."

She then looked at the entrance and raised both hands towards it. A rumble sounded throughout the valley as she pulled her arms down to her sides. The stone around the entrance to the cave began to crumble before large chunks fell to fill the entrance. Looking at the three slumbering beings near her feet, she smiled before turning on her heel and leaving them behind. No evidence remained of the cave entrance and several hours later near dusk when the couple woke they saw before them not a cave but just another rocky side to the base of the mountain. Adaria watched them from the shadows for the next few days as the couple tried to find some clue to the strange creatures they heard came from this region, but finding nothing they left dejected. The padawan would return to Northrend knowing she had succeeded in her trial given to her by the grand master. The secret of Silithus remained undiscovered.


	2. Part One: Plans within Plans

**_Part One: Plans within Plans_**

Two months after the elven-sith hybrid and jedi, Illiana, buried the remains of her father next to her mother in Northrend on the mountaintop near the jedi temple, a woman in dark red robes walked through ancient elven ruins in the heart of Mannoroc Coven. Satyrs and fel orcs watched her and her companions from a distance. Behind the woman trailed another standing a foot taller and wearing black robes and a hood that obscured her face. At this woman's heels scampered a five foot tall creature with white hairless skin hunched over on two legs with two beady eyes above an overly large nose. Beneath that nose formed a mouth filled with pointed teeth. Several black bony spikes rose from the top of its head and the backs of its forearms and legs. It snarled and drooled as it stayed close to the feet of the woman in black. The leader, her hood pulled back to reveal a slim face with red skin, reddish yellow eyes, and raven black hair, led her companions directly towards a round eight foot tall structure, open in the center, affixed upon a raised dais in the middle of the ruins. Arcane writings etched into the ring began to glow as the two women approached and swirling green energies formed in the center. The three beings stopped ten feet from the portal as those energies coalesced to form a green light that illuminated the immediate area.

"Why have you come here?" a booming voice asked from the center of that green light. "Your kind failed my mandate centuries ago."

"The failure was yours…not the sith," the red woman retorted. She looked around the area with a smirk. "In fact…isn't this where the jedi defeated you? Another failure, yes?"

"Your arrogance is amusing," the voice replied. "But know your limits, sith. My patience with your kind is already worn thin. Push further and my amusement will end with your death."

"I've been dead once before, Sargeras," the woman said turning her attention back to the portal and with a wave of her hand. "And yet here I stand and there you are out there…wherever that may be. I assure you I come with something much more interesting than your amusement. But my proposal requires you rectifying your failure when you brought my people to this world."

"I did not fail, little sith," Sargeras boomed. The demonic followers cowered despite their distance from the structure, but the sith and her companions remained unfazed. "You were charged to create the plague and yet your people failed to deliver on your promise…"

As the demon lord spoke, the sith woman removed the glove on her right hand and held it up as she interrupted the powerful being on the other side of the portal. A green blotch marred the otherwise completely red three fingered hand. "Your taint is what caused the failure, not the rituals or us! This corruption distorted the ritual. Neither the ritual itself or the sith who performed it are to blame. Your blasted corruption that was inflicted upon us when the underlings drank your blood is the cause for the failure. _You_ are to blame." She lowered her hand to her side and stepped closer to the portal. "But if you remove that which you inflicted upon me then I can successfully perform the ritual and create the rakghoul army you desired when you approached us on Alzoc centuries ago. I can still repay the debt that is owed for our salvation…if you cleanse me of this curse."

"Isn't that a rakghoul scampering at the foot of your companion?" Sargeras queried. The white skinned creature hissed as it reared its head like a cat. "It would seem that your claim is unjustified. You did create the creature before me now, yes? Its existence causes me concern, little sith. Who failed who? What have you withheld from me?"

The sith turned and motioned for the rakghoul to approach the portal. It looked up to the hooded woman before moving forward after she nodded slightly with her head. "It is a failed attempt to fulfill an oath I made long ago," the sith said looking back towards the portal. "In the past the amulet we originally forged worked only on those of us whose skin had turned green. The more of the taint present in our bodies, the more susceptible we were to its influence. Varok destroyed the original after his own daughter turned and he was forced to kill her." She placed her hands behind her back and began pacing before the portal and the rakghoul scampered closer to the arcane ring. "After my own death at the hands of a jedi, my essence was transferred into the clone body you now see before you, but your corruption is genetic. My clone body is as tainted as my original was and therefore when I tried in recent years to perform the ritual again the result is the same."

The hooded woman reached up and pulled back her hood revealing herself as a troll with blue skin, small tusks barely long enough to reach her upper lip, and long fiery red hair. Her eyes reflected her immersion into the dark side of the Force as she stared at the portal with red and yellow irises. Around her neck she wore a small golden chain with a black amulet. In its center sparkled a reddish green crystal.

"My apprentice possesses the talisman I created and we tested it on one of the local species…an orc. We found this one, referred to as a _peon_ by its peers, slumbering alone in a valley not far from one of their encampments. Because much of his race bears the marks of your corruption he was turned quite easily, but when we tried later to convert a night elf it failed. That is the proof of my claim as to why we originally failed. Your taint ensures that the ritual and its resultant plague affect only those who bear the marks of your corruption. I assume you prefer the plague to convert the untainted more than those you have…touched. Am I correct? To convert those not already converted?"

"I am unmoved, Nyrexia," the demon lord said. "My understanding was that once converted, a rakghoul spread the plague by bite or scratch. If this one exists then I would presume that…"

"That information is false," Nyrexia interrupted. The troll behind her whistled slightly and the rakghoul returned to her side. "Karness Muur created the rakghouls, but even he had to reengineer it into a plague. A two-step process is required to procure the army you desire. This creature represents only the first stage."

"Then complete the second stage and honor the agreement we made. I want my rakghoul legion!"

"I cannot," the sith answered. She stopped to stand directly near the center of the portal. "Only Varok knew the second part and only he possessed Muur's holocron which detailed the ritual. But…I know where it is and I can learn the second stage. If you remove the taint, then I can replicate the original plague which is much more potent. It will affect _all_ species and not just those touched by you or your minions."

Silence was her answer as Sargeras pondered her offer. The fel orcs and satyrs cautiously closed around the two women and the portal. Nyrexia, once killed by the jedi Talisora centuries ago and then reborn into the body of a clone she kept in stasis while still on friendly terms with Varok, turned her attention to her apprentice and the rakghoul leering at the encroaching satyrs. The sith gave a slight nod, and the troll whispered to the creature. It growled as it jumped through the air at the nearest intruder. Sharp teeth and claws shredded the larger being's flesh and the other satyrs and fel orcs ran from the area in fear upon hearing the screams of the rakghoul's victim. Within a minute the creature returned to the side of its master with ichor dripping from its claws and lips. The corpse it left behind was barely recognizable as a satyr. Nyrexia turned her attention back to the portal. Again she held up her hand showing the green blotch to the demon lord on the other side of the portal.

"As fearsome as this beast is, it is _only_ a controlled beast because it came from a peon. More formidable beings transform into even more formidable rakghouls. That is what you want, Sargeras. But as long as this is in me then all I will ever create are _beasts_." Her eyes widened as the green blotch visibly disappeared. Sargeras had given his answer. "Thank you, my lord." She started to turn from the portal and stopped. Looking back over her shoulder she smiled. "I need one more thing."

"And that is?" the voice boomed from the portal. "You have already asked for much…far much more than I would normally grant a lesser being such as yourself. You should be grateful I granted your request at all and not killed you when you first arrived before me."

"I require a diversion," Nyrexia answered with a smile as she turned back to squarely face the portal. "Varok stored the holocron far in the north. Now I _can_ reach it and I _will_ unlock its secrets, but your minions are the only other species on this world with red skin like mine. The natives of this world kill those with red skin on sight. Get your minions and devotees to create a crisis that will draw the attentions of the natives. Bring back old dangers, machinate new ones, I don't care. Whatever you unleash doesn't even have to be successful. What matters is that while they are concentrating on your schemes I am left free to proceed with our plans for the rakghoul plague." Her smile widened. " Last thing I need is to find the holocron and then have to deal with the natives before I can complete the rituals. Those take time and that's what your diversion will give me…time."

"Are you not concerned about the jedi? I know firsthand his potential and of those who follow him," the demon lord stated. "I can easily distract the natives of that world, but the jedi could prove more difficult. They are quite diligent and formidable."

Nyrexia's smile waned. "My apprentice and I have already taken steps to occupy the jedi. I have dealt with their kind before on many occasions and I know exactly what concerns them. This Alliance and Horde…those are the people I need your assistance with."

"That can be arranged," Sargeras replied. "But know this, little sith, that if you fail me again my retribution will be worse than anything you can imagine. That I _promise_ you."

"You will not be disappointed," Nyrexia said as she turned to walk away from the portal.

The troll apprentice followed suit as did the rakghoul near her feet. The energies in the portal subsided and the glowing writings on the ring diminished. The dark lord and her acolyte continued walking without word until they have left Mannoroc Coven. Fel orcs and satyrs mirrored them to the edge of the demon controlled region. They travelled another hour and clear of any demonic spies before the troll, Zirani, spoke the first words between the two women.

"Master, you do know that Sargeras will kill you once he has the talisman that creates and controls the rakghouls."

"I am counting on it," the sith answered as she turned to look into the eyes of her apprentice. Both stopped on a makeshift path through the desolate region. "I have learned this about the ritual since the arrival of the jedi from my home galaxy. Muur's spirit persisted in the talisman after his death, and he controlled those who possessed it and through them the rakghoul army. I plan to do the same with the Sargeras."

"Is that possible?"

"The demon lord is powerful…perhaps the most powerful being in all the universe, but he is obsessed with this world and those who are obsessed can be controlled. You saw how I was able to convince him that his taint was the cause of the initial failure. While that was partially true, I am certain I can recreate the plague even with the corruption to my body. However, his taint would block any attempt I would make to control him once he possesses the talisman. It serves as a means to subjugate those he dominates. I cannot influence him while he has a means to reverse it. Now that I am free of that leash I can continue towards gaining the ultimate power, and I did not lie when I told Sargeras that I needed time. I require the secrets to engineer the rakghoul condition into a plague and only Varok possessed that knowledge on this world. The diversion I demanded serves not only to divert the natives but also him. As obsessed as he is with conquering and destroying this world he will never discover my intentions until it is too late for him." She looked ahead to the wasteland surrounding them. Piles of bleached white kodo bones littered the landscape and dark sky occasionally lit by lightning. "The jedi have the map we left behind in Lordaeron and some of those places marked have begun their own little distractions. What I need from you now is to proceed to Galen's castle and perform a ritual I will teach you to stir unrest amongst his ghosts." She began walking the path as the troll fell in step beside her. The rakghoul remained close to the apprentice's feet as they continued their journey. "Besides the miraluka...that hybrid daughter of my former husband concerns me most. Our spy has informed me that her memories have returned and with them the full power she possesses. Alone they are each a formidable opponent and perhaps stronger than I am currently. Together…"

"Can we trust this spy, master?"

"She killed his sister years ago," the sith replied. "He is highly motivated to remain loyal to us." The apprentice simply nodded. "Drakus possessed a great number of the holocrons we brought with us containing some of the darkest secrets of the Force. I know she learned from those old devices powerful rituals and techniques that remain a mystery to even myself. Should she discover us and what we plan then all is lost." She stopped to look at her apprentice. Zirani halted with her and bowed her head to her master. "The hybrid spent some time with Galen, so when his ghosts begin losing their senses he will have no recourse but to turn to the only living person he feels he can trust. She will answer his pleas and assist however she can. In that aspect she is weak like her father. If you perform the ritual correctly she will never ascertain that we were the cause behind the ghost's disturbances."

"And the miraluka?" the troll asked keeping her head bowed. "What of him?"

"Our diversions will keep the rest of his jedi occupied," Nyrexia answered as the two women resumed walking along the path. "He will remain in his tree coordinating the others. As long as they are bewildered by what is happening in those areas marked on the map…seemingly random occurrences…then so too will he be distracted and unaware of us and the true danger we pose to his kind."


	3. Part Two: The Mercenary

**_Part Two: The Mercenary_**

Two Alliance soldiers led their prisoner through a low dank corridor. The rattling chains of his shackles echoed off the stone walls as they passed one cell after another. Some occupants pleaded for mercy with the guards as they passed while others stayed back from the doors hoping they could avoid whatever punishment awaited them. The guards ignored them all as they marched their charge from the dungeon. The prisoner glared ahead as they finally reached the stone staircase at the end of the corridor. His dark complexion hid his scowl in the dimly lit dungeon and only the sounds of his shackles kept his captors from hearing the low growling from his throat. In stark contrast to the shining silver of the armor worn by the soldiers, their prisoner wore simple leathers with a set of shoulder pads created from bits of wood and sinew. Along the bottom of these hung metal rings and from one set by his left shoulder the top of a white cloak hung across his torso and upper legs and held tightly at the waist by his leather belt.

A door opened at the top of the stairs into bright sunlight. The man raised his bound hands to shade his eyes as he examined his surroundings. They walked into the courtyard of a stone walled fortress. Several small wooden shacks and buildings lined the outside while in the center stood a stone keep. Bright blue and gold Alliance banners with the lion's head crest hung from each side of the main gated doors. More armored soldiers marched in formation carrying pikes while several others rode horses along the perimeter mirroring guards walking the parapets of the outer wall. The man could easily tell those of high rank as they wore elaborate capes and cloaks with tabards over their armor. " _So much pomp and circumstance in this cesspool of the world_ ," he thought to himself as his guards grabbed his arms and led him towards the waiting maw of the small castle. He laughed drawing the ire of the soldiers around him. A few days before he had saved several of them from the grips of death, and now those same hapless soldiers paraded him to a tribunal and possibly execution. He should have just kept to his own affairs and let the small contingent of five die at the appendages of the silithids. Instead he charged into the fray and saved them all and this was his reward.

Once through the main doorway of the keep, the prisoner spotted several slovenly dressed maidens whispering to each other as they watched his guards parade him through the corridors. Few windows existed on the ground level so torches were hung periodically from the walls to light the interior of the fortress. Smoke clung to the high ceilings making breathing inside a little difficult. First a left turn, then a right, and then another left and the trio stopped at a wooden staircase leading to the higher levels of the keep. Two more soldiers stood guard at the bottom and said nothing as the prisoner was escorted further into the fortress. At the third level they exited onto a stone walkway leading to the main command chamber. The prisoner knew it would be in that structure, just twenty yards ahead of them, he would face judgment by the leader of these men and women. From this angle he saw the large blue and gold pennants flying from the tops of the watchtowers and the four smaller cone towers of the main hold ahead of him. Why couldn't it have been orcs or trolls? At least they wouldn't have detained him almost immediately and never would have admitted a human had saved them. But instead he aided human Alliance soldiers and Light forbid someone dressed like him would rescue their sorry asses. They approached the wooden door to the main hold and it opened from inside just before their arrival. As he was led inside he couldn't help but think back to why he was here now. It wasn't his attire that caused them to arrest him, but the sword he carried. Once in the hold he looked to his left and spotted it shining in the torchlight. Several high ranking men and women stood behind a large wooden table set upon a stage about three steps taller than the rest of the room. Each wore the typical silver armor polished to a high sheen under blue and gold tabards with the lion's head crest directly over their chests. At each end of the table stood a man at the left and a woman at the right. Their gauntleted hands rested calmly on the tabletop. At the center and across from him a golden haired human male with a chiseled face and squared jawline sat in a high backed chair, and behind him stood a night elf woman with star shaped tattoos around her eyes. White hair framed her elegantly featured face. The prisoner would have noticed she wore simple brown robes like a monk if his attention had not centered upon the object lying on the table directly before the commander. The man's hand rested next to the distinctive greatsword. The prisoner gazed upon the gold plated hilt and the leather strapping he had wound tightly around the grip. The three foot long blade was sharper than any weapon on Azeroth. The center was open for the first foot of the weapon, and beneath the main blade was attached another one two foot long and single edged. His guards stopped him at the base of the steps leading to the table, and a low growl escaped his lips.

"The prisoner as you requested, milord," the left guard stated as they stopped.

The blonde glowered at the prisoner as his cohorts at the ends of the table sat in their chairs turned slightly to face the accused. "Leave him," he said with a gravelly voice, "and return to your posts." The two soldiers stomped their feet in salute before turning and leaving their charge. The prisoner and leader stared directly into each other's eyes. "Jacen Thorne," the commander continued, "you stand accused of thievery. What is your defense?"

"You've already determined my guilt," Jacen responded as he raised his shackled hands. "Just end this mummery and state your judgment."

"How came you to possess this sword?" the woman on the right asked. Jacen turned his gaze to her. She kept her black hair in a ponytail, and he might have been attracted to her if she wasn't one of those prepared to stretch his neck. Her chocolate skin, almost as dark as his, glistened in the torchlight that also made her brown eyes sparkle. "I doubt your story that it is a family heirloom. No weapon as fine as this would be found in the possession of a man such as you unless foul play was involved."

"A man such as I?" the prisoner asked.

"A barbarian judging by your dress," she answered with a frown as her eyes examined him from head to toe.

"You're pretty enough," Jacen said with a smirk. "Take off that armor and spread those legs and I'll show you just how barbaric I can be."

"Animal!" she shouted as the stood up and slammed her fist into the table. "How dare you…"

"Enough!" the blonde bellowed without raising his voice. The woman sat back in her chair with a growl. Jacen returned his smiling countenance to the leader of the fortress. "Answer her question, Mr. Thorne. How did the sword come into your possession? Who did you steal it from?"

"You already won't believe the truth, so what sort of lie would you prefer?" he stated. "Perhaps I took it from a dead soldier on some battlefield in a distant land? Or maybe…maybe I snuck into a castle at night…and right after I stole the virtue of some young pretty maiden I swiped it from her father as a trophy. I even slit his throat with it before I departed. Is that a story you would believe? You certainly aren't interested in the truth because if you were then I wouldn't be standing here now chained and shackled like some common criminal."

"He'll never tell us," interjected the man on the left with a sly grin on his hawkish face. "Just stretch his neck and be done with it."

"I will give you one last chance," the handsome blonde growled. "Tell us how you came into possession of this sword so that we can return it to its rightful owner. Tell us the truth and I will make your death quick and painless. Keep up with these lies and I assure you that you will beg for death. One way or another I will have the answer I seek."

"I've already told you the truth, damnit!" Jacen shouted. "It's been in my family for generations!"

At this time the night elven woman stepped up to stand beside the commander. He did not face her as she gazed first at the sword and then at Jacen. "What evidence do you have that this man is not telling the truth?" she asked calmly. The commander looked up at her. "I cannot sense any deception from him. In fact all I can sense from him is loathing towards the three of you."

"Careful," the commander warned her. "Your presence is allowed because you carry a letter from Shandris Feathermoon. While she is a respected leader in the Alliance, she does not govern us nor do we answer to her. Varian Wrynn is our king and his laws we uphold."

"Just look at him," the woman on the right stated with a wave of her hand. "That should be proof enough."

"I am looking at him and yet cannot ascertain what it is about his appearance to make me believe he is lying," the night elf said. "If anything I would suggest he is an adventurer more equipped to survive the wilds than you…if I judged him by his appearance alone." She left the side of the commander and walked around the table and down the few steps to stand next to the prisoner. Jacen had to look up at her since she stood a foot taller than him. "These shoulder guards made of wood and sinew," she started as she walked around and examined him. All eyes in the room followed her. "Probably enchanted by a druid which would mean they are stronger and more durable than the steel armor you wear, obviously much lighter, and able to withstand a direct attack by an edged weapon. His leathers allow him speed and quickness while still enough protection from glancing blows. This cloak I would imagine he uses for wearing over his head to protect him from the sun." The night elf then stopped and looked directly at the woman accuser. "If I judge by his appearance…and only his appearance…then I am not surprised he saved five of your soldiers from the silithids. He is more adept at surviving in this region than you are." She then returned her attention to Jacen ignoring the woman's scowl. "Where were you born?"

"Lordaeron…before the Betrayal," he answered looking up at her. He then stared directly ahead. "My father was the finest blacksmith in the kingdom as his father was before him…and his father's father. That sword was crafted by my ancestor over a thousand years ago and been in the possession of my family ever since." He returned his gaze back to the night elf. "And I am the last. I have no son or daughter to leave it to once I am gone from this world."

"He's a vagabond and nothing more," the commander stated. "If he _is_ anything of repute…probably a mercenary. But I do not believe his story that _this_ sword is an heirloom…at least not from his family." He picked up the weapon and held it before him. "I have seen no other like it in my all my travels and yet it is obviously made from the same kind of craftsmanship as those owned by nobility. Even if I were to believe his story about his family of sword forgers…they would not have kept ownership of such a fine blade." He placed the unique sword back upon the tabletop.

"But you have no other proof that he is lying?" the night elf asked. The commander frowned at her. "What sort of due process is this? To convict a man without any real proof other than he _looks_ like a thief? What sort of example do you set for the Alliance? Is this truly an example of law and justice under King Wrynn?"

"The rule of law must be upheld…especially here in the wilds," the woman responded. "If we do not maintain the foundations of civility then all would be lost. We would be no better than the Horde."

"Lady, if you think the Horde is lawless then you have been here _far_ too long," Jacen scoffed. "At least the orcs have a sense of honor…"

"You son of a bitch!" the woman yelled as she stood and unsheathed the sword at her waist. "I' will…"

A soldier crashed through the door interrupting her. Blood and gore covered his otherwise shiny armor. In his right hand he held a sword with a broken blade that dripped a green colored ooze. Through the open door they could hear the sounds of solders shouting, horses whinnying, and blades clashing. "The Silithids," the man gasped. "They've breeched the walls!"

The soldiers in the room stood and the commander unsheathed his sword. "To arms!" he shouted as he raced around the table and towards the door. He paid no attention to Jacen as he passed. "Protect the keep!"

The others followed him out of the room leaving Jacen alone with the night elf. He watched them as they left and his heart raced in his chest. Those bugs had been acting much more brazen in the past few weeks. Their increased aggressiveness was why he was trying to leave the region against the pleas of his former employer. The commander was correct in that Jacen was a mercenary. Since the fall of Lordaeron he worked as a sword for hire often joining archeological expeditions in Uldum or explorers in Un'goro Crater. When he came across the five soldiers as they were attacked, he just couldn't leave another sentient being to die in this forsaken place. He had seen men and women killed by the beasts. They ripped bodies to shreds and tore people in half. He witnessed a tauren trying to pull his innards back into his torso as a silithid fed on his detached legs several yards away. That was a horrendous death he would not wish upon his worst enemy. He looked down at his shackled hands. If he didn't free himself his worst nightmare could be his fate. Looking around the room he saw the night elf by the table. He almost forgot she remained.

"You…night elf…find something to unbind me," he ordered. The woman cocked her head to the side and then walked calmly towards him. How could she remain calm? Didn't she know what was happening outside? "Please," he pleaded, "release me so that I can at least die fighting."

"This attack is highly irregular," she said as she stepped up before him. "They have not attacked an Alliance or Horde settlement like this in years. Do you know why this is?"

"What? Are you mad? Who cares why they are attacking? Are you going to get me free or not?" She pulled what looked like a sword hilt from a clasp at her waist. "Unless that thing is a key," he started, but stopped when he heard a snap and hiss and magically a golden blade emerged from the hilt. He continued to stare as the blade, for he didn't know what else to call it, cut through the iron shackles like butter. After she did the same with those on his legs, he simply gawked at her as she walked towards the door and stopped at the entryway.

"This is most disturbing," she said not looking back at him. The golden blade disappeared. "My master sent me here to investigate the rumors of increased silithid activity, but I was not expecting something like this." She turned her head to look back at him. For the first time he noticed that her eyes glowed blue rather than either the silver or golden hue he had seen in other night elves. "You are certain you do not know anything that might have driven them to this kind of aggressive behavior?"

"In don't know and I don't care," Jacen said as he approached the table. He reached out and gripped the hilt of his sword. "Right now all I care about is getting out of this place alive." He turned and walked to the door with his sword in hand. The night elf stepped aside as he stopped in the doorway and looked at her blue orbs. "Thanks, by the way."

The mercenary ran across the walkway towards the staircase leading to the main level of the keep. With luck he could fight his way past the bugs in the courtyard and escape the fortress. In the open he knew ways to avoid them. The shouts and screams grew louder as he descended the stairs as did the screeching of the silithids. As he reached the ground level his grip tightened on the hilt of his sword. His last job ended in a battle where he barely survived, and by the sounds of the fighting outside he was quite certain this one would be worse.


	4. Part Three: A Narrow Escape

**_Part Three: A Narrow Escape_**

In the room next to the stair landing, Jacen found three of the fortress' cleaning maidens cowering in the corner behind an overturned table. Iron plates and tableware lay scattered across the stone floor along with several candles still burning in their holders. A ball of twine caught his eye, and he rested his sword against the wall as he leaned forward to pick it up. His dreadlocked hair fell across his face. Once he had the twine in hand, he stood up and looked over to the women in the corner, two brunettes and a blonde. Each stared back at him with pure horror etched onto their otherwise pretty faces. They watched him as he measured about an arm's length of the thin rope and then used his teeth to cut it. He then gathered the locks with both hands and used the twine to tie a rough ponytail at the back of his head. With a smile he gave the women a small salute.

"Best place to hide is up in that command tower," he told them as he reached over to grab the hilt of his sword. "But watch yourselves as you cross that catwalk. Some of these bugs can fly."

The two brunettes looked at each other, but it was the blonde's eyes that shifted nervously from the staircase to the man standing before them. "Maybe it's safer here," she said.

"Suit yourself," Jacen retorted as he started to leave the room. "Some of those bugs also burrow underground. These stones won't stop them for long if they have a mind to get in here."

As he stepped around the corner the three women clamored over the table and darted up the stairs. Not that he was sure anyone would survive the attack by the silithids, but they might last longer up there than down here on ground level. The bugs nested underground throughout this region, so what he told them about tunneling was true. He figured the commander's arrogance was why the fortress was overwhelmed so easily. While the bugs actually couldn't burrow through rock or stone, they could enter through the main entrance of the keep. The courtyard, however, was nothing but common topsoil and clay. Most commanders built their fortresses atop stony outcroppings or in the side of a mountain, but not this fool. He constructed his right smack in the middle of the valley probably on the advice of some inept engineer who never saw a silithid let alone know what they were capable of and it was only a matter of time before they overran the place. The bugs were very territorial.

Jacen reached the main corridor leading to the entrance. So far he encountered no more soldiers or silithids, but that didn't settle his nerves. Once he caught a glimpse of the courtyard his heart sank in his chest. Alliance soldiers battled hundreds of the bugs. Screams permeated the air as one soldier after another fell to a silithid. Scores of the creatures scrambled over the walls. Jacen's eyes widened at the realization that they had to climb over mounds of carcasses to traverse over the high barriers. Few soldiers remained on the parapets and the archery turrets were abandoned probably as the bugs' bodies continued to stack up to a height even with the top of the wall and the men who ran into the courtyard in fear only to meet death at the appendages of silithids that had burrowed into the courtyard. The ground was littered with bodies of both humans and bugs and gore was splattered on the walls of every building except two that were engulfed in flames. Some poor souls must have thought fire an effective weapon only to fall in the conflict and instead of inflicting damage to their foes the buildings caught fire. The smoke mixed with dust from the fighting created a haze that was becoming more difficult to see through, and with every breath he could feel it tickling his lungs. Then there was the smell. Bad enough that silithids stunk while alive, but they were worse when they died and mixed with the stench of involuntary bowel movements of dying humans made him gag and almost vomit. Growing up in Lordaeron Jacen always imagined war as something glorious that created heroes, but now in his mid-twenties and having survived more conflicts than he could count, Jacen knew that battle was anything but glorious. It was a living hell.

One of the bugs, scampering on six pointed legs attached to an elongated torso and a small head with a two hinged jaw and large pincers on each side, changed direction and scampered straight for him. Gripping the hilt of his sword with both hands, Jacen released a primal yell as he raised the weapon above his head and swung down at the silithid just as it reached him. The hyper sharp blade sliced through the head splitting it cleanly in two. The rest of the body collapsed in a heap as he sidestepped it and began marching for another bug standing between him and freedom. It reared up on its four hind legs as he neared. Seizing the opportunity, Jacen rolled forward to stop under the front legs and pincers of the silithid. Thrusting his sword upward, the blade entered the neck of the creature severing the head from the rest of the body. The mercenary quickly stood to his right to avoid getting caught under the collapsing corpse. Green and yellow ooze dripped off the sword as Jacen inhaled deeply while surveying the area around him. Most of the bugs remained on the perimeter fighting some soldiers on horseback. Surprising they had lasted this long, but so far no more silithids remained in his immediate area. To his right he spotted the body of Hawk-face with a large gaping hole in the center of his chest and an expression of pure horror permanently etched on his face. Someone must have forgotten to tell him that the sharp appendages of the silithids could penetrate plate armor just as easily as a steel tipped lance. Jacen should have felt sorry for the man except that of the three judges this one was the most eager to stretch his neck. As far as he was concerned the world was a better place without Hawk-face. With a glance left he spotted the blonde commander crawling to an outcropping of a fallen wall. Jacen ran to his side just as the man fell to his face. Dust kicked up from the man's breath as he collapsed. Once at his side, Jacen reached over to turn the man onto his back. Blood trickled from his nostrils and he looked up at the mercenary and smiled with bloody teeth.

"Seems none of will survive this day, thief," the commander coughed. "I hope the sword was worth your life."

"Still talking nonsense," Jacen replied as he examined the rest of the commander. His left thigh had been punctured as had his right shoulder. But the mortal would was the hole in the gap between the man's breastplate and his greaves. Jacen looked back into the eyes of the commander. "You know these wounds are fatal."

"But _I_ will die with a clean conscience," he said and then spit blood onto the ground. "At least confess to me now and you may die the same."

Jacen leaned in close and held up the man's head. He was already growing cold. " _Mine_ was already clear," he whispered. He felt the man go limp in his hand and closing his eyes he gently lowered the man's head back to the ground. Ignoring the vacant orbs of the dead commander, Jacen took a deep breath and stood to survey the rest of the courtyard. A flash of yellow caught his attention and he cocked his head to the side as he watched the night elf on the far side of the compound slaying one silithid after another with her golden bladed sword. She moved with a quickness and grace that contradicted the savagery of the bugs trying to attack her. Instead of heading towards any remaining human in the compound, most of the silithids seemed now to converge on the strange combatant. She slashed into one and with a single motion leapt over it to stab another and still in the same motion spin on her heel to cleave a third in half. He had never seen anyone handle a sword like this woman. If the dangers of the battle were not so imminent he felt he could just stand there and watch her dispatch every foe that crossed her path.

A scream from his left jarred him from the spectacle, and he turned his head just in time to see a silithid impale the third of his judges, the woman he unceremoniously propositioned. The bug's sharp fore appendages were sticking through her armor at the left shoulder and midsection. She dropped her broadsword as she was lifted from the ground by the creature. Jacen sprinted towards her when one of the flying ones buzzed his head. He sensed the attack before it happened, and just as the bug's legs swept through the air where his head had been, Jacen rolled to his right and thrust his sword straight into the air catching the silithid in the thorax. Gore spilled from the wound onto him, but not wasting time he jumped up to continue his way to the woman still suspended in the air by her attacker. As he got closer to her, another ground crawling silithid stormed in from his right. Again he sensed its approach and spinning on his heel and swinging the greatsword in a wide low arch he caught the bug's legs and cut them each in half. It skidded on the ground past him as he leapt towards the one holding the woman. Gripping his sword overhead and the blade downward, he landed on the back of the bug and drove his weapon into its head. It screeched as it reared to the left trying to buck him off and the woman was thrown clear of their battle. Jacen yelled as he pushed further downward with his sword until he had buried the blade into the silithid all the way to the hilt. With a shudder it collapsed to the ground. Jacen rolled off its back and in a single motion withdrew his sword and ran towards the woman who was lying in a heap several yards away. Once at her side he dropped his sword to the ground and cradled her in his arms. She shivered as she looked up at him in fear.

"Th-th-there are too many," she gasped. Her eyes began searching his face as he looked down at her. He reached up and moved some of her blood matted hair from her face. "P-p-please…f-f-forgive…m-m-me."

"She needs medical attention," a woman's voice said above him. He looked up to see the night elf holding her strange sword. Silithids slowly advanced on their position from a freshly dug hole in the ground. There was no escaping now. "We three are the only survivors."

"Not for long," Jacen responded as he looked back down at the woman in his arms. "Soon there won't be any of us left." She lost consciousness and the shivering lessened. She was going into shock from the wounds, and he felt an unexpected pang in his heart as he sense her life ebbing. Her face seemed somewhat peaceful under the circumstances, and if he could save at least her he would. He raised his head and squinted at more silithids crawling from the hole they had dug into the fortress courtyard. "She is dying, and in another moment we'll be joining her," he said as he returned his gaze to the strange woman.

"I have a way to leave this place," the night elf said. Jacen watched as she raised her left arm and suddenly the silithids around them flew through the air as if repelled by an invisible hand. Then she pulled some small object from her waist and with a crackle a ghostly image of another elf, perhaps a sin'dorei, appeared above it. "Master Demira," she said to the image. "I am in need of a portal from here to the temple. I have two more with me and one is gravely injured."

The image of the woman pointed to somewhere and said in a hollow voice, "Casting one now. Grogg is gone but Kai'moira is here as are some druids from the Circle."

Jacen gaped as a magical portal appeared behind the night elf. The image of the woman disappeared above the device just as she placed it back in a pouch on her belt. Around them the silithids were regaining their footing and started to cautiously approach their position. He was about to say something about the oncoming attack when the woman reached out again with her left arm and his sword flew through the air from where he dropped it to her outstretched hand. Holding each sword and crouching into a fighting stance, she returned her gaze to him.

"Carry her through the portal," the night elf commanded. "I will protect you until you are through. Then I will follow once you are safely on the other side and before Master Demira closes it."

Jacen could only nod as he stood up with the woman in his arms. This day's events turned stranger and stranger, so without hesitation he quickly walked to and through the portal. Any chance to leave this place was better than the alternative, and with a quick glance at the face of the woman he carried perhaps some hope of at least saving her life. He emerged into a bustle of activity. A dark haired draenei woman ran towards him with a bald orc male beside her. Behind them several night elves along with a few gnomes, trolls, and tauren followed. He felt hands touch his shoulder and he looked to his left to see the high elf from the device guiding him. Her straight black hair billowed with the breeze as she looked at him with clear green eyes. Behind her two blood elves, a man and a woman, stood to either side of the portal. They were casting the arcane magics that kept it open.

"They're clear, Adaria," he heard another woman say to his right. He turned his head to see a small blonde human female holding a purple bladed sword similar to the night elf's. "Hurry through now before the silithids get any closer. We cannot let them through."

She wore a simple brown tunic and matching trousers. In fact, except for the mages everyone here wore the same kind of clothing in various hues. The draenei wore white and her orc companion gray. Those behind them wore a rainbow of colors. Even the woman who guided him wore a similar cut in red. What was this place and who were these people? Did they belong to some cult he had never heard of before today?

"Come this way," the high elf said to him as she guided him towards what looked like a giant tree. "You are safe here," she continued.

He couldn't form any words so he simply nodded as they quickly walked towards the tree. At the entrance they climbed three steps and entered into a great room hollowed out of the trunk. Several corridors branched from this room, and she led him to one straight on the other side. She was asking him questions, but he barely heard her as he tried to take in the place. More people of almost every race on Azeroth milled about the room as they walked through each wearing more common attire seen in cities across the globe. Draenei stood conversing with night elves and tauren. A couple of orcs sat at a table sharing a drink with some humans. A blood elf stood with a gnome and a dwarf as they talked about a carving on the far wall. A draenei male and an orc woman admired a carved statue of what looked like a human male with his hands steepled before his chest and wearing the robes of a monk. What _was_ this place? Once in the corridor he saw several small tables along the sides with potted plants of almost every variety from around the world. Strange devices along the ceilings lit the hallway as bright as daylight. They finally entered into a room with a raised dais on the center. The lighting was more yellowish here and calming. Along the walls were several beds and at the base of that dais stood a blue skinned woman wearing a white cloth tunic that left her midriff bare over a matching floor length skirt. Raven hair hung loosely over her shoulders, and she wore an inviting smile under red eyes on an elegantly featured face. She motioned towards one of the beds to his left, and he felt the elf guide him towards it. Once at the side, he lowered the woman in his arms and gently moved her arms and legs so that she lay straight on her back. Her breathing had become labored since he first picked her up, but otherwise she almost appeared peaceful.

"What is her name," the blue woman asked with a melodious voice and standing at the foot of the bed. Jacen looked over to her. She still wore that pleasant smile, but the red eyes bothered him. He didn't know why except that they were unlike any he had seen before. Except for the color of those orbs and her skin, she appeared human.

"I-I don't know her name," he replied meekly.

"She is called Madelyn Luxton," a familiar voice answered. He looked over to see the night elf from the fortress enter the room. She walked to stand on the opposite side of the bed from him and handed him his sword. He accepted the weapon and placed it in the familiar clasps on his back. "Can you save her, Master?"

"Her wounds are severe and she has lost a lot of blood," the blue woman replied. A healer? "I believe I can. Adaria, will you aid me with her armor? As the Force mends the body, the flesh will close around the metal and we will need to extract it in stages to avoid that. To remove it now might destabilize her body." She then looked at the high elf. "Demira, could you ask Kitali to come and assist. We have practiced this kind of procedure before and she will know the signs I make for when to remove each piece of armor. Normally I would have Grogg assist, but he is in Booty Bay for his trials."

"The situation with the pirates?" the one named Adaria asked. The blue woman nodded as she steepled her hands before her chest.

"Of course," the one called Demira said and then to Jacen, "please come with me, sir. They will need room to maneuver as they attempt to save your friend."

Jacen turned to follow but watched the night elf and Blue help the one they said was named Madelyn. "She isn't my friend," he answered softly. "They can save her…yes?" he asked as they left the room. "Besides me and the elf…she is the only survivor. Too many have died this day as it is. I would hate to add one more to the list of the fallen."

"They will do everything they can to heal her."

In the corridor they met the draenei woman in white running towards them. As she passed she said, "I already know, Demira," and continued towards the room they had just left.

"What is this place," he asked as they emerged into the main room. The people continued with their conversations as if nothing was happening. They appeared to have no clue or care that a woman was fighting for her life just yards away. He stopped in the center of the room. "Who are you people?"

Demira stopped with him and smiled. "This is the jedi temple and the surrounding area our enclave in Northrend. Those dressed like me are other members of our order." She gestured to the people around the room. "Today we are dressed this way to welcome emissaries from the various governments around the world and our other allies."

"I've never heard of you before. Are you some kind of cult?" he asked.

"Not quite," she chuckled. She motioned for them to return to the outside and started walking. He followed keeping a wary eye on the beings around him. "We started the Order about six years ago when there were just four of us. Now we number around thirty," she said as they walked out of the temple and into the surrounding courtyard.

Jacen gazed in wonderment at the valley now that he had a chance to stop and take it all in. People from all the races of Azeroth walked around this plush valley surrounded by cliff walls. He guessed the distance from the giant tree, which he noted grew alongside one mountain face, to the other side of the valley at close to half a mile. In fact, the valley was situated in the triangular crevice of a large mountain. In the center he noticed a grove where smaller trees grew and several more people knelt or sat on the ground in that area. In its center a large stone statue had been erected of a human male with robes like those worn by Demira under a long cloak. To his right he saw a group of men and women sparring with swords. The two walked into the open for about another twenty yards before Demira stopped.

"You are a welcome guest here," she said with a warm smile. "And if you have not already surmised, I am called Demira."

"Jacen…Jacen Thorne," he replied still taking in the enclave. He looked up to see several dragons flying overhead. He spotted at least one that appeared to be a black dragon, but he knew that was impossible because that flight was destroyed years ago. It was probably the lighting playing tricks with his eyes and it was just another red or green like the others. After a moment he returned his gaze to the high elf still watching him and smiling. "Thanks for saving us, by the way."

"It was Adaria who saved you," Demira stated.

"The night elf?"

"Yes…the apprentice to the Grand Master of our order…and my husband."

"Jedi…Grand master…this place…all seems like so much grandeur for an _order_ no one has heard of," Jacen said.

"Ah…but the traditions…the titles…the foundations and teachings of our order date back over twenty-five thousand years," Demira replied. Jacen gave her a quizzical expression. "That Grand Master…my husband…is not of this world nor was the Jedi Order before his arrival."

"Bullshit." Demira laughed. "You must think me still reeling from the battle we just came from…but what you just told me…bullshit," he said as he placed his hands on his hips. "I'm a little shaken up, but I won't fall for some delusional tale. An order that has been in existence before recorded history? From the time before the dragons were made Aspects? That has to be the tallest tale I have ever heard…and I have heard a great many in my travels. "

"You will accept it soon enough," she said as she turned and pointed to a man walking towards them. The human's shoulder length white hair billowed in the breeze and he wore brown robes like the statue in the grove. Over his eyes he wore a metal covering and at his left hip a sword hilt like the one used by the night elf named Adaria. "Here comes Daneel now. When you meet him then you will understand the truth of what I have told you."


	5. Part Four: Jacen's Burden

**_Part Four: Jacen's Burden_**

Jacen walked into the room as Madelyn sat up from her slumber. She pulled the covers tightly around her waist as she watched the man start pacing back and forth at the foot of her bed. His original attire he replaced with a brown tunic and trousers similar in style to those worn by the jedi. The greatsword he carried strapped to his back. He stared at the floor as if he were afraid to look upon her. Despite the miraculous healing powers of the jedi, some blood still seeped through the bandages on her left shoulder from the wound where the silithid had punctured her armor. She offered the man a warm smile.

"They told me you asked to see me," he stated without looking at her.

"I wanted to thank you for saving my life," she replied softly. Her long dark hair hung loosely and with her right hand she pulled some behind her ear. Her smile widened as she caught him steal a glance before quickly returning his gaze to the floor where he paced. "I was wrong about you...during the tribunal. I apologize for misjudging you."

"When I told you to remove your armor...I had something a little more pleasant in mind than what came next," he said with a meek smile.

"I imagine so," she chuckled. "Can I ask you, though, to answer my question? Not for some sense of justice but...to satisfy my curiosity..."

"It _is_ a family heirloom," he interrupted as he stopped his pacing and looked at her eyes. Deep brown irises that seemed to pull him in. For no reason he could explain, he wanted to tell her about his childhood. Why was that? Was it that smile she gave him? The softened tone of her voice? He never told anyone else so why her? "Can I tell you a story?" he asked before realizing he had posed the question.

"Please do," she answered as she tried to sit up straighter.

"When I was a boy I remember helping my father in his smithy as he tried to teach me the family trade," he began. "I only half learned what he taught me, though, because hanging on the wall was this sword...beckoning to me...calling for me to take hold of the hilt and become a great warrior. So I did...every day after I finished my chores. I would sneak out to the foundry and take the hilt into my small hands." Jacen returned to pacing at the foot of the bed as he told his tale. "As a boy of ten I fought many battles and my victories were too numerous to count."

"You became a warrior at such a young age," she asked. He stopped and admired the intrigue written across her elegant features. "What enemies did you face?"

"The scarecrows of the neighboring farms, of course," he answered with a grin. "They are fearsome foes to a boy of ten." Madelyn chuckled. He held his sword high in his right hand and puffed out his chest with pride. Jacen looked up to the ceiling trying to appear heroic. "I swore that I would never allow them to overrun the kingdom of Lordaeron. I would protect the great people of the realm from the scarecrow menace like my heroes Uther Lightbringer and Arthas Menethil. For five years I fought against their tyrannical schemes...I would become a great paladin and protector of the people like our future king!" His smile waned and the sword lowered. He returned his solemn gaze to the woman he had saved. "That was until Arthas' betrayal...when he became the murderer of the same people he was supposed to protect. People like my mother and sister...like my father..." He lowered his head and spat on the floor. "I was a foolish child." He turned his back to her and spoke to the wall. "I can still feel the sting of the smoke in my eyes and filling my lungs as I crested the hill overlooking my village. The flames danced in the skies already filled with the screams of my neighbors…my friends…my family…the clanging of metal on metal…the sickly thuds of metal on flesh…the crackling of the fire as it ate my home. I saw the lifeless eyes of that monster as he first ran over my little sister with his horse just before the flash of his sword as he swung it at my father's neck…and I just stood there." He turned his head but looked down at the floor. "Some hero I was that day to stand there and just watch as everyone and everything I cared about was destroyed. Scarecrows don't move…they don't fight back…but Arthas and his minions did. I remember thinking I should run down and save them…I had the sword…instead I just stood there watching in fear. I should have died that day with everyone else. I was standing in the open on that hill so why didn't they come after me? Why was I spared while the rest perished?" He returned his gaze to the wall. "In my dreams I still hear them begging for me to save them. I feel the heat of the fires on my face…smell the burning of their flesh…feel the softness of the ashes after the fires had extinguished as it falls through my fingers when I finally walk down the hill to examine the carnage." He took a deep breath. "I swore after that I would never stand aside ever again. I even became a soldier for a time hoping to avoid such catastrophes, but more often than not we were the cause of them and so I left the army and became a mercenary." He turned around but kept his gaze from her. "I know that I will never be the hero I dreamt of becoming as a boy, especially since as I have grown older I no longer believe in a benevolence watching over and protecting us. There is no Light. Too much malice and wanton destruction exists in the world and despite that there are great heroes on Azeroth striving against all that is evil…villages still burn, orphans are made, and people suffer. I wish I knew how to stop all of that…to aid the innocent and protect the helpless, but after all I have seen and experienced…" His voice trailed off as he turned back to stare at the wall. "In truth…I am simply still that boy standing on the hill frozen in fear with no idea how to save the ones I loved."

"I'm so sorry you went through that," she said. Jacen looked over to her just as she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "My own family was disavowed by Lord Perenolde when my grandfather refused to leave the Alliance and assist the orcs in the Second War. Although we condemned the actions of Alterac, we've never been accepted _fully_ as faithful servants of the Alliance. No one has accused my family of being anything but loyal, but some people still look at us unfavorably wondering if we have ties to the Syndicate especially after my own brother betrayed us and joined their ranks." She adjusted her bedcover and lowered her head in shame. "I used to think it harsh that after all these years we still had to prove our loyalty, but that is so trivial compared to what you just told me…to lose your whole family…and your faith."

"So that's why you were stationed in that fortress in Silithus. Of the three of you at my tribunal, only you seemed to have any _real_ honor."

"And yet you crudely propositioned me," she said with a huff and a glare. "Don't think I haven't forgotten that despite what you have told me."

"You guys were about to string me up," he replied with a shrug. "Seemed like a good thing to say at the time. I figured things for me couldn't get any worse so what the hell?"

"What the hell? That's why you…" Madelyn crossed her arms in her lap as she bit her lip. "At least I was trying to make the world something better. I haven't given up and I will continue to use my nobility to achieve something greater than wallowing in my grief. I have a purpose and I have _not_ given up my faith. _I_ can make a difference even if you think it's futile to even _try_."

"The military leaders had to give you a command _because_ of your nobility and not for your convictions that you can make the world a better place. They put you somewhere far from the Horde and absent of any significance," Jacen stated. He leaned his sword against the wall and sat on the edge of her bed near her waist. She looked away from him but otherwise remained still. "You remind me a little of Teagus the Red," he said with a warm smile. "I sat on that hill for the rest of the day and into the night as I watched my village burn. The flames rose high painting the night sky orange. For the next three I tried to bury those whose remains I could find and that had not been resurrected to augment Arthas' army. That's when Teagus Bartel came through leading a band of soldiers who had been stationed in other lands when Lordaeron fell to the Sylvanas and her Forsaken. They marched behind him in silver armor and pikes raised to the sky. And Teagus…I remember that flowing black hair and reddish skin like he'd spent every day of his life in the sun and never tanning. That's why they called him The Red, by the way, and like you he carried some disfavor with the higher echelons of command. He saw me with this sword and laughed…one deep from his rotund belly. ' _That blade is bigger than you, boy_!' has said and then laughed again joined by his men. His words stung as I stood on the wreckage of my village, and combined with what I had just experienced anger boiled within me…so I challenged him."

"You what?" Madelyn asked suddenly warming to him again.

Jacen gave her a wry smile. "I challenged him."

"Somehow I shouldn't be surprised," she smiled back as she pulled the covers tighter around her waist.

"There I was all gangly and gripping this sword with both of my small hands," he continued as he lost himself in her eyes. They sparkled in the light and his heart beat a little faster. If it was because he found her suddenly very attractive or the thrill of reliving those old days, he wasn't certain. "Teagus must've pitied me because he accepted my challenge. Accepted and barely moved as I swung at him over and over like I had so many times against the scarecrows. I suppose by then I needed to fight _something_ and he was there at the right place and the right time. When I was exhausted and barely able to hold my weapon, he laughed which hurt worse than the first time. And then he did something I never expected…he begged me for mercy."

"You lie," Madelyn said coyly now intrigued and having forgotten their earlier disagreement.

"Honest…he begged for mercy," Jacen said as he stood up. "' _I cannot defeat a man so full of courage_ ,' he said. ' _I submit to your masterful swordsmanship_.' Then he bowed before me." Jacen began pacing again by the foot of her bed. "I remember looking at the faces of the men behind this fat man bowing before a skinny boy in the middle of a ruined village. They were all stunned…for a moment…and then they too bowed with Teagus. That day I became his squire and for the next four years he taught me how to properly wield this sword." He stopped and gazed back into her eyes. "He told me once that on that day when we first met he was inspired by my courage. They had lost a battle with the undead, you see, but had regained their strength and resumed their hunt. Ruined village after another greeted them as they tracked Arthas' army. For weeks they saw nothing but death and then they found me alone amongst the remains of yet another tragedy in Menethil's wake. Every one of them had fallen to despair until they met me."

"And you?"

"Me? I thought they were Arthas' men and I wanted to kill them all," Jacen replied as he returned to the side of the bed, sat down, and stared at the wall. "Looking back to that day I don't know who saved who, but I am grateful for that encounter. Teagus was a great mentor and friend."

He felt her hand on his shoulder and turned to see her leaning forward and her right hand holding him. "You talk like he is gone," she said softly. "May I ask…what happened to him?"

He gave her a meager smile. "He was killed in Outland. All of them were except me."

"Again the lone survivor," she whispered as her eyes focused on his. "Is that why you saved me? To avoid being the only one left alive?"

"Partly," he answered as his gaze returned to the wall. "I've never really given up _all_ hope. As a mercenary I can do some good even if only as a bodyguard for an individual or small group. I don't work for just anyone and _never_ for criminals. But I also know that I am just one man. To correct what ails the world would require a miracle that I don't know is even possible." He turned his head to see her hands clasped in her lap and watching him intently. "After Teagus and the others died I found myself in the employ of some goblins. I was sitting in a tavern in Shattrath drowning my sorrows when they came in and tried to steal my sword. I was about to cleave one in half, but he panicked and on his knees begged me to become his bodyguard. Seems he was being hunted by some orcs over some failed business venture. I no longer had any real purpose in my life and no one left to care for so I took my first job as a merc. Other soldiers fought the Legion and Illidan's forces, but I no longer cared if the world ended and wielding this sword is the only thing I've ever been good at. I have been a sellsword ever since moving from one employer to another until yesterday." He returned his gaze to hers. "When the silithids attacked there was something about you that reminded me of those days with Teagus and the others…when I _cared_ about something. So just like I saved those soldiers in the wilds, I knew that if I could save at least one of you…" His voice trailed off for a moment as his eyes wandered to the bandage on her left shoulder before returning to her eyes. "I just knew that if I could save you then I would because I felt you are someone worth saving."

Their eyes searched the other's for a moment in silence before she spoke. "I'm glad you did," she whispered. They talked for another hour trading stories from their past. She spoke about her childhood living in a land that was not her home and fondly of her father who raised her to grow into a soldier like her brother. Her parents still lived in Stormwind and when possible she returned to the human capital to visit them. In turn he told her of some of his assignments with Teagus and then of the expeditions he accompanied in several parts of the world. Eventually her eyes grew heavy and he knew not from boredom but the wounds still mending that sapped her strength. When she finally fell asleep, he gently placed the covers over her before leaving the room. At the doorway he took once last look at her peacefully sleeping, and he felt that pang return in his chest. Taking a breath and shaking his head, he entered the hallway and closed the door quietly. He almost ran into the blue woman who had healed Madelyn just the day before. Kai'moira was her name as he recalled. She wore the same white robes as when he first met her, or at least robes of a similar design.

"Sorry," he said with a bow of his head. "I wasn't expecting to see anyone out here."

"That's quite alright," the woman replied as she mirrored him. "I take it she is feeling better?"

"She's asleep, but I believe so."

"Good," Kai'moira said. "I was coming to check on her and find you. The Grand Master would like to speak with you in the council chambers. Two flights up and you can't miss it."

The Grand Master. Jacen couldn't resist the slight shudder that the chiss woman chose to ignore. When he saw the man walking across the courtyard, the jedi leader looked like any other human. Then the man removed the metal covering over his eyes, or where they should have been. The sight of the empty orbs was an image Jacen still couldn't purge from his mind. With a nod he turned and headed for the stairs leading to the upper level. What could the alien from another galaxy want with him? After that first encounter and what he witnessed the rest of the day convinced him that he was in a place secluded from the rest of the world for a reason. The blood elf and the human blonde women guided him around their compound as they regaled him with tales of their exploits. Some of what they told him still left his head spinning. They worshipped this thing they called the Force which as they described it was something akin to the Light. He didn't relish the thought of staying amongst religious zealots, but as they told him more and more of their brief history on this world he became fascinated by them. Stories of a great vessel high in the sky that they crashed into the sun, finding a lost Titan fortress not far from this location where a giant drill pointed to the center of the world, and leading an army against the most fearsome foe in Azerothian history…the Burning Legion itself. The details they described were too preposterous to be anything but truth. That plus the sword that Adaria wielded back in the Silithus fortress. What he didn't tell Madelyn, and couldn't tell her right now, was that these people had restored within him a glimmer of hope for a better world.

At the landing of the second floor there stood a single door. Looking to his left and then the right, he slowly stepped forward. It opened as he approached to reveal a corridor about twenty feet long that ended at an expansive room. In the center stood a table made of a reddish colored wood and around it white wooden chairs. Along the circular walls rose twelve columns at equidistant places. Their height about half of the twelve foot tall ceiling and above five of them ghostly faces of men and woman that seemed to stare at him as he walked into the council chamber. One appeared like a human male with long hair at the back of the room. To the right the spectral image was of a woman wearing a hood that covered her eyes and next to her a man with weird tendrils on his face. To the left he saw a bald woman with strange appendages that sprouted from the back of her head and next to her a high elven woman with long flowing hair. As he passed the entry he saw the faces of two high elven boys atop the columns on either side. Two men stood near the table and turned as Jacen stopped just inside the room. Daneel, the Grand Master, he recognized again with a slight shudder as he recalled what existed behind that metal covering he wore. The other man, with a medium build like the jedi, wore strange tattoos that covered much of his bald head which was also adorned with small horns. While the jedi wore green robes similar to those he wore the day before, the other wore a black duster over a white shirt and black leather trousers and boots. He wore a belt at his waist with strange small firearms holstered at each hip. Behind them on the table lay several strange devices silver in color with thin green glass over the top and along with those a paper map of Azeroth.

"Welcome, Jacen," the jedi said with a smile and a small gesture to the man beside him. "May I introduce the a very old friend of mine, Olivaw."

"Call me Ollie," the horned man said with a bow of his head which Jacen returned. "That's an interesting sword," he continued, "where did you find it?"

Jacen released a low growl. Not this again. "I didn't find or steal it. My ancestor forged it over a thousand years ago and it's been in my family since then."

Ollie grinned. "I highly doubt that...at least the forging part."

"Why do you think that?" the Grand Master asked as Jacen scowled at the former smuggler.

The zabrak stepped to the side and pointed to the hilt as he looked at Daneel. "See that near the base of the blade near the hole? I'd bet all the gold we possess that is a Rakata symbol. That sword is at least twenty-five thousand years old." To Jacen he said, "Your ancestor may have found it and indeed it's been in your family's possession since then, but he didn't forge it. Most likely some old sith lost or abandoned it only to be _discovered_ by your ancestor. Is blacksmithing a family tradition?" Jacen nodded as the scowl disappeared. "Your family has spent generations trying to replicate something they never could. Lucky for you because I _guarantee_ there is no finer blade on this planet."

"Are you certain?"Daneel asked.

"Absolutely. Remember my wookiee friend? We found one similar to this on Belsavis down in the tombs. He refused to wield another after we found it. I preformed metallurgical tests on the blade and not only was it resistant to lightsabers, but it held an edge like no other metal I have ever worked with. Those Rakata knew how to craft weapons."

"I don't care what you think, and you will not take this from me," Jacen stated.

"No intention to," Olivaw replied. "It's your sword. I'm just telling you where it came from and that I'm actually quite impressed. Only expert swordsmen can wield a weapon like that and by the way Adaria described the events in Silithus," he turned to look at Daneel, "I would bet he might give you a challenge if you crossed blades."

"Something to consider for another time," the jedi stated and then turned his head to Jacen. "Your sword is not why I asked to see you. I am more concerned with what happened in Silithus and I have questions."

He pointed to the map and directed the three of the them to examine it. Jacen followed the other two men to the table. The map itself was the most detailed he had ever seen with the four known continents of Kalimdor, Northrend, Pandaria, the Eastern Kingdoms with the Maelstrom correctly marked in the central ocean. Several smaller land masses had been added that he was unfamiliar with, but apparently these jedi knew of places the rest of the world had yet not discovered. Across the landscape he noted ten locations marked with a red dot. Daneel pointed to the one over Booty Bay.

"Grogg reported this morning with revelations that concern me," he said as he looked at the mercenary. He moved his hand to point at the dot over Silithus. "You and Adaria came from here. She had nothing to report, but I have a question to ask you, Jacen."

"I will tell you what I can," he replied still looking at the map. "Though I doubt if what know will be of any use. I was a hired sword for a group of archeologists. A bodyguard more or less in case the silithids ever attacked their camps."

"Did you or anyone you worked with ever see a red skinned woman?" Olivaw asked. The question caused Jacen to look directly at him. "By your reaction I would venture you have."

"I didn't," Jacen answered. "But one day this troll woman came to camp and spoke with the expedition leader, Horas. They met for an hour and then she left. " Jacen stood up and stroked his goatee with his right hand. "After that Horas was adamant that we needed to explore a nearby silithid nest for some artifact. I told him he was insane and that entering a nest was tantamount to suicide. We argued and then I left, but I remember him saying that the red woman told him about the artifact and that it would be the most significant find made in the past millennia. I thought he was so excited about the information he got from the troll that he confused her skin color. She had blue skin." He noticed the concern on the faces of both Olivaw and Daneel. "He wasn't just excited...was he?"

"Daneel, you found this map in a sith base that was abandoned for centuries," Olivaw said to the Grand Master.

"Can we be so sure?" the jedi replied as he held his hand over the old document. "Ten areas across the globe with unusual activity and unrest and each corresponding with the marks on this map. First Grogg reports of pirates speaking of a red skinned woman yet none have actually seen her and now Jacen's revelation from Silithus with the expedition leader mentioning a red skinned woman that again no one has seen."

"There's a sith still alive and I'll wager we discover similar accounts at the other locations, but what is she up to? What's her end game?" Olivaw stated and then turned to Jacen. "Right now you are the only person we have with any sort of contact with her or this troll who I bet is either her in disguise or an apprentice. We'll need your help to unravel this mystery."

"I'm just a mercenary," Jacen said as he stepped back and held his hands up, "not some sleuth."

"Then we'll hire you," the zabrak offered.

Jacen lowered his hands. "Food costs gold. Supplies cost gold. I only work for _gold_."

"We have more than you can imagine at our disposal," the jedi said as he took a step towards the human. "Name your price and you shall have it."


	6. Part Five: Cipher

**_Part Five: Cipher_**

CLANG!

Jacen retreated from his opponent as he struggled to maintain his grip on the hilt. His arms had gone numb in this sparring match after only two blows. The short human blonde woman smiled as she held her blunted metal sword in a reverse grip in her right hand while circling to his left. He matched her movement while also wiggling his fingers hoping to lessen the tingling in them. Celeste was her name, the same woman who guarded the portal when he first arrived in this valley. Her long hair tied back into a ponytail and wearing a midriff baring violet shirt with matching full skirt, the petite jedi proved more a challenge than he anticipated. Already beads of sweat formed along his brow while not a single drop appeared on her beautiful face or toned abdomen. Never did he expect a woman so small to strike with so much power, he almost dropped his sword during their first exchange. She stopped and shifted her left foot just an inch and then the blur.

CLANG!

Lying on his back in pain with his sword somewhere out of his reach, Jacen looked up at Celeste standing above him with her sword pointed towards his neck. No one had bested him like this since the days when Teagus first taught him how to fight with a blade. He had fought orcs, tauren, trolls, humans, dwarves, even some ogres and never lost an encounter, never lost his grip on his sword, and never felt the power behind their swings like he did just now from this small woman. The muscles of her stomach flexed with each breath showing just how calm she was and still not a single drop of sweat anywhere on her body. His gazed darted from the blade pointed at him to the smiling face of his opponent. With a nod she pulled the sword back from his neck and reached forward with her left hand.

"You have some skill with a blade," she stated. Was she mocking him? He gripped her offered hand in his right, but it was still numb and he fumbled a bit before getting a good hold. "I think I can teach you a few things that might help in future encounters." He groaned as she pulled him up. "Are you alright?" she asked while taking a step backwards. "I was trying to hold back since this is our first sparring session, but I might have used too much power in that last movement. Sorry about that."

Jacen looked to his right to see his sword sticking straight out of the ground ten feet away. "You call that holding back?" he asked while taking a step towards his sword. "Lady…I've fought ogres that can't hit that hard."

"There are techniques and movements that I employ with a lightsaber that I cannot with a straight blade," she answered. The petite woman once again held her weapon in the reverse grip with the blade resting against the back of her arm. "That last one comes from use of the Ataru form, but I forgot that I carry too much speed through the movement which adds to the power of the swing. Be grateful I was not channeling the Force to enhance my use of it."

"This force makes you stronger and faster?" He stopped next to his sword and took the hilt in his left hand while never taking his eyes off of her.

"Simply put…yes."

"But you say you weren't using it just now," he said. Her reply was a nod. "Then don't take this the wrong way, but as little as you are how did you get so much power behind your attacks? You surely aren't stronger than an orc or a tauren?"

"Physically you are much stronger than I," she replied as he placed his sword in its clasps on his back and then stood to face her. "Metal weapons are more than blunt instruments of battle. Your sword, for example, is a finely crafted blade which allows the use of techniques more exquisite than simply hacking. Learn to wield it properly and you can strike your foe's weapon at its point of resonance that will seem to him or her that you have great strength. We call these shatterpoints, and I used this knowledge against you as we sparred. Although I am quite adept at sensing these through the Force, I did not use it to make my swings more powerful. Instead my blade struck yours at the exact point where to you it felt as though I had."

"You cheated," he said placing his hands on his hips.

"I tested you," she replied. "Daneel informed me that he had hired you to assist us in a mystery that greatly concerns us. Since I am the weaponmaster of our order, I felt it my obligation to see for myself what skillset you possess."

She turned to walk towards the entrance of the temple and he followed her. "And what is your assessment?"

"Your ability is adequate," she answered.

"I suppose I should take that as high praise from someone who just bested me in three blows."

"It is ," she said looking at him as they walked. "Most of those untrained in the Force don't even make it past the first exchange."

* * *

An orc walked past the various shops along the port of Booty Bay. His long black hair he tied into a ponytail at the top of his head behind a receding hairline, and two long braids hung over his shoulders. A brown leather jerkin, black trousers and boots contrasted only a little with his dark green skin. Amongst the variety of races on the wharf that day, Grogg fit right in looking like any other sailor. He smiled to one goblin merchant and then waved politely to a human woman selling seashell jewelry from her makeshift stall. For the past month he had spoken with about every vendor and sailor along these streets trying to ascertain why pirate activity had increased recently. One claim that most recalled was about some treasure a merchant ship discovered about three week's sail east of Jaguero Isle. Some said it was Titan technology while others swore it was lost debris from when the Exodar crashed years ago on the other side of the world. The jedi padawan figured that whatever this treasure was it led to a heightened interest by pirates hoping to find something of great value. Two cargo ships had gone missing in the past week and another the week before along with a passenger vessel bound for Quel'thalas. None of the pirates moored at these ports, however, admitted to scuttling any of these vessels and he had seen none of this so called treasure everyone talked about.

Having lived the pirate life in his past, Grogg knew they rarely bragged about their hoards for fear another crew might exploit such knowledge, so during one of his first nights in the city he questioned the first mate of a known pirate ship, _The Raven's Talon_. The Force can affect the weak minded, and Grogg used this knowledge to gather what information the first mate might not otherwise indulge, but after several hours the tauren didn't know anything. He mentioned rumors and speculation about another crew finding the wreckage of a strange airship crashed on an uncharted island, but he didn't possess any details about the wreckage itself. He also admitted his captain was informed of this wreckage by a woman with red skin, but when Grogg pressed further he could not recall ever actually seeing this person. That last piece of information piqued the jedi's interest and so he similarly interviewed sailors and passengers from ships as they harbored. Several more accounts of a red skinned woman emerged, but each time there was only the recollection. No one had actually seen her. He had almost given up hope of learning anything more concrete until he received a mysterious note this morning telling him to meet with someone in an alley near the end of the merchant section.

As he walked past one store after another, the padawan neared the alley referred to in the message. He could be walking into a trap set by angry pirates unnerved by his investigation or perhaps one of his old shipmates recognized him. He hadn't seen any of those familiar faces, but that didn't mean a few of them weren't in the city. He could handle anything he might encounter, however, because the Force was his ally. At the street entrance he looked between the buildings. No sign of occupants and several stacks of crates and wooden boxes littered the alley with the occasional rat running between them. The height of the buildings combined with their closeness blocked the sun which created several dark hiding spots for a possible assailant or two. He stretched out through the Force trying to sense his mysterious contact, but he felt nothing. His brow furrowed as he walked down the dark alley. This _was_ the place and time indicated in the note he received this morning. He kept reaching out through the Force when he approached the end of the buildings. Suddenly he felt someone pull him between two large crates and then the sharp edge of a blade at his throat. His attacker pulled him back over a large box the same height as the small of his back.

"Don't. Move." The voice belonged to a woman with an accent somewhere between that of a dwarf and a blood elf. Reaching down with his left hand towards the lightsaber hilt at his waist he started to speak, but her other hand pulled back on his chin. He felt the trickle of blood on his neck as the razor sharp blade cut into his skin. "I said don't move, jedi." He thought at first he might have found the red skinned woman, but looking down at the hand holding his chin, he saw the pale fingers of a human. He could feel her breath on his ear as she spoke which meant that the smaller human must have been waiting on a perch for his arrival. "I don't know your species," she said, "but I know your kind. Where is your enclave on this planet?"

Grogg's mind raced as he tried to think of a way out of his predicament. "Who are you?" he asked. "What is a jedi?"

"I'm the one asking the questions." He felt the blade cut a little deeper. So close to his jugular and yet not deep enough to sever that vital artery. This woman knew exactly what she was doing, so he decided to relax his arm and let patience prevail. "This world isn't listed on any chart or in any Imperial database. I recognize the lightsaber hilt on your belt, so no games. Where is the enclave on this planet? How do you plan to strike at the Empire?" The blade cut him again. "I've been trained to kill jedi so no tricks. Answer me or your life ends. What is your plan for attacking the Sith Empire?"

"I think you have your facts confused," Grogg replied.

"I've been stuck on this miserable backwater planet for the past year and a half, but I'm not stupid," she retorted pulling his chin higher. "After the smuggler's ship crashed I woke up on an island in the middle of nowhere. I survived on what few supplies remained in the cargo hold and a fresh water source in a cave on that island. Every day I watched the horizon, but not a single shuttle crossed the sky which leads me to conclude that only one spaceport exists on this planet. Clever. Just a few weeks ago one of these primitive sailing vessels arrived at the lone beach, so I subdued the crew and convinced them to bring me to civilization. Instead they sail to this hellhole, but imagine my surprise when I see you wandering the streets. A jedi. Quite the scheme you must have because the rest of the galaxy is unaware of your presence here or even the existence of this world. The Republic, the Empire, the jedi council on Tython...a plan so secretive even the highest members of the order remain unaware...you _will_ tell me what the Barsen'thor is doing on this world and how he intends to strike at the Sith Empire."

* * *

After Jacen's sparring match with Celeste, she requested he meet her in the Council Chamber an hour later. During that time he returned to the room provided for him by the jedi which happened to be across the hall from Madelyn's. He hoped to spend some time with her since her recovery was progressing rather quickly, but when he arrived he found her room empty. With a sigh he entered his own room and used the device they called a refresher. It used no water to clean him instead utilizing sound. The gnome engineer, Windi Weathergear, told him the device was a sonic shower derived from technology that came from the same galaxy as Daneel, Kai'moira, and Olivaw. He doubted he would ever understand how the thing worked, but each time he used it he felt cleaner than he ever did bathing in water. Afterwards he donned a fresh set of reddish brown robes like the jedi wore. The clothing wasn't the most fashionable but surprisingly very comfortable. He checked on Madelyn's room again, but she still hadn't returned from whatever sojourn she took in the valley outside. He couldn't blame her because he could use one himself, but he had been hired by the jedi for a job and right now that meant meeting Celeste in the Council Chamber. Within minutes he arrived, and as Jacen rounded the corner he heard raised voices coming within.

"That's my ship!" Olivaw said just as the mercenary entered the room. He stood pointing at the ghostly image of a bound orc sitting in a room and behind him on a counter laid some strange mechanical device. This image was projected above the center of the main table. Around its outside stood Daneel, Celeste, Olivaw, and Kai'moira while the tauren, Cheyuun, stood near the entrance. Jacen gave him a polite nod which was returned. "I'd know that hyperdrive motivator anywhere."

"She says she will only speak with the Barsen'thor," the hollow voice of the orc said.

"Has she hurt you?" Celeste asked leaning on the table. "Is that a cut on your neck?"

"I'm fine, Master," the orc replied. "It's nothing permanent."

"Where's my ship!" the zabrak demanded. Jacen looked over to the Grand Master who thus far had said nothing. He stood with his arms crossed listening while the others talked. With another nod to the tauren guarding the door, he walked over to stand next to the miraluka while Olivaw shook his fist at the image. "I demand to know where it is!"

"I don't know for certain," the orc answered. "But I can say with a great amount of certainty that it must be what the pirates are searching for in this region." He turned his head to look at Daneel. "My captor states that she expects you here in one hour at the Salty Sailor tavern… alone. Any sign of others and she says I will be the next addition to her body count."

"I will be there in one hour," Daneel said and then the image disappeared.

"My baby is alive," the former smuggler said with a slap to his thigh. "I knew that anomaly wasn't enough to take her down."

"It must've been pulled through just as mine had been," the miraluka stated as he turned for the room entrance. "Someone has found the wreckage."

"You mean a sith," Celeste said falling in line beside her former master. "And she has Grogg hostage. Notice he called me master and not something more personal." Jacen followed them out into the hallway while the zabrak was left behind sitting in a chair mumbling something about his freighter. "He's trying to avoid giving the woman any more leverage than she already has."

"I do not believe a sith holds him prisoner," Daneel replied as they traversed the catwalk around the outside of the massive tree. Jacen listened to them as he tried to keep is balance on the downward slope. "If it was the red skinned woman that he reported earlier then he would have given us a signal, but there was none so I can only assume another party holds him captive. What does concern me is the particular device shown with him. Only one of us or someone from my home galaxy would know the significance of revealing that particular piece of technology." They stopped at the landing of the second floor of the temple tree. "Someone familiar with hyperdrives and local pirates won't know what they've found. Apparently this mystery woman does."

"Could it be this troll woman that I saw in Silithus?" Jacen offered. Both jedi turned to look at him. "I mean…she was the reason my expedition tore off into the nests after some treasure that I doubt is actually there and now the bugs are killing anything and everything in the region. Maybe she's done the same with the pirates and this talk of a red skinned woman is a ruse?"

"It's possible we are dealing with a former apprentice to a sith," the miraluka said bringing his left hand up to rub his chin. "Though even if that were the case I don't think she would be this overt. If she follows their code then she would simply engage Grogg in combat…"

"Or she would walk away and continue with her plans elsewhere," Celeste said completing Daneel's thoughts. "We have several of these anomalous outbreaks across the globe…almost twelve now with Illiana's concerns she spoke of before leaving for the Alterac Mountains earlier this morning. Booty Bay can't be the central focus of this troll's schemes." She looked up to the Grand Master's visor. "So you're going alone? I should come with you."

"No," he said with a smile as his hand lowered to his side. "You need to remain here. You are too close to this. I can sense your feelings and this danger to Grogg troubles you deeply." Then he turned his gaze to Jacen. "But I will not be going alone. Another jedi this woman might recognize, but you…"

* * *

Jacen walked through the entrance to the Salty Sailor tavern. Sitting at various tables around the room were men and women of various races. Directly across from the open doorway sat Grogg alone at a table. His hands rested on the tabletop with a mug between them. Jacen noticed his hands were no longer bound like in the holo image. The mercenary made no indication that he recognized the orc, and of course, Grogg never paid him any more attention than that of another patron entering the tavern. For his part, the human wore the same clothing he wore at his tribunal the week before in Silithus which fit perfectly with the attire worn by the pirates and cutthroats that frequented this establishment. Jacen's eyes surveyed the room as he walked to the bar and sat on a stool. The barkeep, a bald goblin with a large wart on his nose, took his order for a mug of ale and then shuffled off behind the bar. Jacen leaned on it with his right arm and his back to the door. Normally he would never sit like this in such an unsavory place, but he knew who followed him and so the danger was within the room, not from the outside.

"He's sitting alone at the back of the room," Jacen whispered as the barkeep returned with his ale. The goblin gave him a stern look, but the mercenary waved him off. With a huff the diminutive man scampered off to his next customer. He brought the mug up before his mouth and hesitated.

"Any sign of our mystery woman?" he heard Daneel reply in a device hidden in his ear.

"I have no idea," Jacen answered. "I see a couple of elves, trolls, humans, and even a dwarf, but no clue which…if any…might be the one we're looking for. Neither of the two trolls are the same woman I saw in Silithus." He took a swig of ale and almost regretted it. "Your friend is also unbound and just watching the door. Our mystery woman must be here."

"I am about to enter. Pay particular attention to the reactions of the women in the room."

Jacen said nothing as the miraluka walked through the doorway. His brown robes flowed behind him as he first entered the tavern and then walked straight towards Grogg's table. Damned if not every woman turned and watched the jedi as he crossed the room making his job that much harder. As Daneel seated himself, their gazes returned to whatever conversations they engaged in before the jedi's arrival. He sighed deeply before taking another swig and listening to Daneel speak to Grogg through his earpiece.

"You are unharmed?" Daneel asked the orc. A nod was the only reply as he slid a device from behind the mug and across the table to the miraluka. Jacen watched as Daneel placed it in his other ear. "I am here as you requested," he said as Grogg's eyes searched the room.

"I said to come alone, Barsen'thor," a woman's voice replied. "You disappoint me."

The Grand Master tilted his head. "I am alone."

"That so? Then you won't mind if I put a shot between the eyes of the dark skinned stranger pretending to drink at the bar." Jacen's head jerked towards the door, but he saw nothing. In a slight panic he searched the room, but no one acted any differently than before Daneel's arrival. "I'm not so foolish as to remain in a place where I might be cornered," the woman stated over their earpieces. "Leave the bar and join your friends at the table." Jacen squinted as he carried his mug and obeyed the order. "Jedi, we have much to talk about, you and I."

"You clearly have the advantage," Daneel stated as Jacen sat down. "What exactly do you wish to know?"

"Where in the galaxy are we, for starters," she said. "I keep hearing people calling this planet Azeroth, but there is no such world that I am aware of. Are we located in the outer rim or closer to the core worlds and the Republic?"

Daneel turned in his chair to face the door. "First I have a question for you. How did you get here?"

"Worried that others might follow me? You can't keep this world hidden forever."

"Indulge me, then," he replied. "I am curious how someone found me out." Grogg shook his head, but Daneel gave him a slight wave of his hand. Jacen watched the exchange between the jedi and then followed Daneel's gaze to the door. "Especially someone adept at hiding themselves in the Force. I cannot sense your presence which means you are well trained in facing Force sensitives."

"You jedi are so accustomed to thinking Imperials are either human or sith. Never did they imagine that one of _us_ could actually be a spy amongst them."

"You are a miraluka."

"Give the man a prize," the woman answered. Grogg's and Jacen's eyes widened at the revelation. "I followed your friends to Nar Shaddaa where they met up with that smuggler. You see, I knew your sister's inquiries about your disappearance had to be a ruse. The Watchers didn't want to believe that the jedi could pull off such a clandestine scheme as to fake your own death, but I am a seasoned field agent and I knew better. I hid on Tython posing as a padawan while your sister and the others carefully executed your plans. Even Grand Master Shan was oblivious to what the four of you were doing. When your sister died I knew the other two would come to you…and now here we are. I knew you weren't missing or dead."

"I have a surprise for you then," Daneel said as he brought his right hand to his face.

"Careful now, Jedi. I have you in my crosshairs."

Daneel kept his hand close to his face and pointed outside. "You are not in the same galaxy you called home…and now I know where you are."

Jacen's brow furrowed at the small white light that appeared at the end of the jedi's finger like a candlelight, and then the woman screeched in their ears followed by a flash of red and a smoking hole in the middle of the tabletop. Immediately the two jedi jumped from their chairs and raced out of the tavern. Unsure of what just happened, he followed them into the busy street. The orc pointed to one of the far rooftops and shouted, "There!" Jacen turned his head to look at where Grogg pointed just as a woman leapt from her perch and started running across the rooftops. She wore dark gray pants and white top under a black duster. Long brown hair flowed behind a human face with a metal visor similar to Daneel's and in her hands she carried a silver rifle. Daneel sped off to the left while Grogg went right. Jacen sighed and ran straight ahead to the building where the woman had sat in wait with a clear shot through the open tavern doorway. A sniper. He kicked open the front door and ran through to a staircase at the back. Two dwarves shouted at him as he passed. He raced up the three flights of stairs to the open roof hatch and climbed out just as the woman stopped five houses away and aimed her rifle at the street below. Five flashes of red erupted from the muzzle of the gun followed by screams and shouts below. Jacen leaned over to see people running in panic and several with firearms withdraw their weapons and began firing at the woman. All of them missed as she had already resumed running across the rooftops.

"I see her heading west," he heard Daneel say in his earpiece.

Jacen hoped the jedi had removed the woman's listening device, but just as Daneel gave away her position she changed direction and leapt down off the roof of the house. "I think she heard you," he said as he followed after her. "She jumped down into the alley."

"I intended for her to hear us," the jedi replied.

"Are you crazy? That gives her the advantage!" Jacen stopped at the roof's edge and looked down to see the sniper's coat just as she rounded a corner two buildings ahead.

"Stay where you are…both of you," Daneel commanded. Jacen had no clue where the other two were, but he _knew_ where the woman was headed. He didn't dare say anything with her listening to them and then the jedi said something that baffled him. "What is your name?" Silence was the answer. "I know you are a cipher agent, that much is apparent to me, so there is no harm in telling me who you are."

Jacen expected no answer, but the woman surprised him. "Cipher will suffice, Jedi," she said apparently out of breath. "That was a dirty trick."

Jacen spotted Daneel rounding the end of the alley from the corner of his eye. The jedi looked up at him, and he pointed to where he had seen the woman running. Daneel acknowledged him with a nod and then slowly walked to where he pointed. He then saw Grogg enter the alley from his left.

"We can reach a peaceful resolution to this, Cipher," Daneel said as he stopped in the middle of the alley at the intersection. "Surrender and I promise you that I will tell you all you want to know."

"Why should I believe you," she answered. "You already told me one lie. The navicomputer on the freighter was destroyed in the crash so I couldn't triangulate where this world is, but I know that intergalactic travel is impossible. Your claim we are in another galaxy is false."

Jacen ran the city street layout through his mind as best as he could remember. He hadn't visited Booty Bay in years, but if he recalled this location correctly then the woman was cornered about fifty yards ahead of them around a bend to the left. She was trapped and apparently the jedi knew this. Question was did she know it also?

"I spoke no lie, Cipher, and I can prove it."

"How?"

"My ship also crashed upon my arrival," Daneel stated, "but its navicomputer is still functional. I can show you that no star constellations match those known in our home galaxy. I promise that I will not harm or imprison you, but you must surrender peacefully."

Jacen watched as she walked around the far corner of the alley with her rifle against her right shoulder and aimed directly at the Grand Master. Cipher stopped two steps past the corner. Daneel held the hilt of his lightsaber in his right hand but did not ignite the blade. The mercenary looked to his left to see Grogg had not moved but had ignited the blue blade of his lightsaber. Jacen wasn't sure what to do since he only carried his sword and against a gun it was worthless. Several red flashes erupted from the barrel of the woman's gun. Jacen cringed and closed his eyes afraid to see the bullet ridden corpse of the jedi below. At that distance she couldn't miss but instead of the cries from Daneel, he heard the woman scream out. Jacen opened his right eye and saw Daneel hadn't moved but was now holding the rifle. Cipher knelt where she once stood and cradled her left hand.

"You might as well kill me now, Jedi," she spat as Daneel walked towards her. "Otherwise I will find a way to escape and warn the Empire about you and this world."

Daneel stopped before her as she looked up at him. "Since I cannot convince you of the truth, then I must show it to you…but I will not kill you, Cipher."

"Your funeral," she said as she stood and faced him. She was almost a head shorter. "Because when I get the chance…I _will_ kill _you_."

Jacen shook his head and walked to the other side of the roof. People still ran in panic for cover and some pirates continued to pepper the other rooftops with gunfire, but oddly none of them seemed interested in the building he was standing on. He sighed deeply and then his eyes widened. He wasn't certain, but he could have sworn he just saw the troll woman from Silithus standing near the tavern entrance and staring right at him with red eyes and a wicked smile. A crowd rushed by at that second and when it cleared she was gone. A cold shiver ran down his spine.


	7. Part Six: The Flames of Fear

**_Part Six: The Flames of Fear_**

"I know what I saw," Jacen said as he leaned on the railing of the balcony to his room. His dreadlocks hung loosely to his shoulders as he stared at the courtyard below. Several jedi and warriors sparred in one section while mages practiced spells in another. He surmised scholars and students gathered in the small grove near the center under the statue of the man he learned was a fallen jedi. Along with Daneel, Grogg, and their prisoner he had only returned a few hours before and still he could not shake the grim countenance of the troll as she stared directly at him. Red irises with yellow rings around the pupils and that smile that hinted she knew they were there because she planned it that way. All that was happening this past week was way out of his league.

"No one doubts you," Madelyn said behind him. He turned his head slightly to the right as she joined him overlooking the valley. She wore an emerald green dress with gold trimmings and white highlights along the tops of her shoulders. A white three barred pattern crossed from her waist to just over her right breast. She placed her left hand on his as her eyes searched his face. "But if you need more reassurance…if you say this woman was there watching you, then _I_ believe you."

Jacen took a deep breath and returned his gaze to those sparring below. "Why did these jedi hire me, Madelyn? Back in Booty Bay I was more of a hindrance than an asset. I'm a decent sword hand, but even the little blonde is better than I have ever imagined. I was deceived by her size and appearance as would any man in Azeroth, but she is the best duelist amongst them. There is no way I can defeat her on my best day if it was also her worst. And that is just one example of the mysteries of their abilities. I watched one the other day floating rocks. He cast no spell like a mage or shaman, just waved his hand before him and the damn thing moved as if he were physically lifting it. That is beyond anything I can do. They don't need me to add to their ranks, so why?"

"Because you can identify this troll woman," she offered as she moved her hand to his shoulder and leaned in closer trying to reassure him. "You are the only person who has seen her."

"With those eyes it shouldn't be hard to pick her out of a crowd. I've never seen any like them before today. Dark sider is what Grogg called her. I don't even know what that means, but with how he said it…" He lowered his head. "I should return what they paid me a leave this place. I am of no use to them. I'd be better off back to playing bodyguard for some treasure seeking expedition, not on some quest to save the world against foes who can swat me aside like an insect."

"But isn't that what you said you wished you could do? To help those who cannot defend themselves?" She leaned over to look up into his face. "While you've been busy I've learned some things about these people. I've heard tales of how they faced an Old God, the Burning Legion, foes from other worlds and all because they wanted to protect the people of this world. They strive to do exactly what you hoped you could do…defend the helpless. Working with them will fulfill that dream, Jacen. Maybe you can't fight at their level, but you possess information that is vital to their cause. Is that not just? Is that not enough to stay and help them?"

He looked over to her and then at the railing. "That woman… the one with the rifle…she had Daneel dead to rights in that alley. I didn't see what happened because I closed my eyes, but I swear I heard her fire off five shots and not one…not a single one…hit him. I don't know what he did or what magic he used, but she was a good shot at long range…I know she couldn't have missed…but she did. If it were me she fired at I'd be dead. They need someone more competent than me to help them with this…whatever it is. I am not the man they want, Madelyn. I never was."

"They believe in you enough to ask for your assistance," she said softly as she pulled on his shoulder so that they faced each other. Her eyes searched his. "I know in my heart that the man that rescued me from certain death is more than competent to help them save the world even if he doesn't believe it himself." She reached up and cupped his face in her hands. "I believe in you, Jacen."

"Why are you telling me this, Madelyn? Why do you care if I stay or go?"

"Because every girl grows up dreaming of her knight in shining armor, but I've known a lot of knights and not one of them has your courage. Most boasted about their conquests and supposed acts of bravery, but not one of them would have lifted a finger to save me like you did." Her eyes looked down at his goateed chin. "My knight doesn't wear armor, and he doesn't think himself the best in the land. He doesn't brag about how mighty a warrior he is or how many women he's bedded." Her eyes returned to his. "He needlessly questions his worth and courageously acts without thought of what reward he might receive. Although our first encounter wasn't under the best of circumstances…you won my heart in Silithus. You are a good man, Jacen Thorne, and perhaps the best I have ever known. I know in my heart that if you left now you would regret it the rest of your days, and I cannot live with myself if I didn't at least try to convince you of how important you are even if you don't realize it yourself."

* * *

Demira walked the short corridor into the council chambers of the jedi temple. Daneel stood alone leaning over a map of Azeroth while another holographic projection of the globe slowly rotated above the center of the table. Her red jedi robes flowed behind her as she closed the distance to her husband. He either didn't hear her footfalls or he ignored them. When she reached his side, the quel'dorei massaged the miraluka's back with her right hand. His long exhale brought a smile to her face.

"Are you ever going to come home?" she asked with mirth. "We've missed you."

Now was Daneel's turn to smile. After their return from Desolace, the couple sought the council of the master healer, Kai'moira, about reversing a medical procedure the jedi undertook in his youth that prevented him from fathering a child. At first the chiss didn't believe such a reversal possible, but after Illiana assisted her in studying some holocrons stored in the Titan fortress, she was able to repair the miraluka's reproductive system. Demira was now almost three months pregnant and it was just beginning to show. Already the couple could tell their child was Force sensitive as they felt his presence through the Force and he touched them back. A surprising side effect of this was she could no longer switch from using the Force to arcane energies as her connection to the latter faltered making her exclusively Force sensitive. Fortunately other mages had joined their order and several more served as emissaries from the different governments of the world. Although she could no longer cast the portals that proved vital in their previous endeavors, that responsibility now rested with them. Demira wasn't bothered by this because now her focus centered on her growing family.

Daneel stood straight and placed his right hand on his wife's stomach. "This one is too young yet to realize I have been busy lately," he teased and then kneeled down to where his face was even with her small bump. "Isn't that right, Little One."

"Busy doesn't mean you have to sleep here every night," she said looking down at the top of his head. "Our home is a short walk from here and I have missed you in our bed." He looked up and opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. "I don't care if you are the _Grand Master_ …first and foremost you are my husband and soon a father. Your family needs you too."

He itched the right side of his nose as he stood. "I suppose I have been negligent in that department lately."

The elf crossed her arms over her chest and raised her left eyebrow. "You _suppose_?"

He gently grabbed both her shoulders and pulled her towards him. "I _have_ been negligent in that department lately…and I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," she s smiled warmly as she embraced him. They simply looked at each other for a moment before she spoke again. "That felt good. So…about this stranger you met today…a miraluka like you. What can you tell me about her?"

"Cipher? What she has divulged thus far was that she was an Imperial agent in our galaxy and had snuck aboard Ollie's ship just before the three of them tried to find me. Her hiding spot on the freighter was not in proximity to the others when Dorak folded space, so instead of traveling through the anomaly with them she came through with the rest of the ship. Since her arrival she has believed she remained in our galaxy on an uncharted planet. Upon our return I showed her my navicomputer and allowed her to investigate and operate it. She now understands that she is no longer where she thought she was and there is no hope of ever returning home. She still won't give us her name, but is pragmatic enough that I think she has accepted her situation quite well. Right now she is with Kai and Windi viewing the noetikons and learning about what we have been doing on Azeroth and more about its peoples and various cultures across the globe," he replied. He released his wife but held her hand as he returned to peruse the map. "She doesn't concern me as much as this troll woman that twice has been seen by Jacen. This last time almost as if she were following him."

"Do you think she knows what we know about him?"

"That he is Force sensitive? Possibly," Daneel answered. "It would explain why she seems to track his movements, but that still doesn't answer the question about these sightings of a red skinned woman."

"Have you told him yet? That he is one of us?"

"No and I don't intend to…at least not now…the time is not right nor do I think he is ready for such a revelation. His mind is cluttered with self-doubt. In his case I believe his ability is something he must discover on his own."

"But you have a plan to help that along," she said with mirth causing him to turn his attention from the map to her. "Don't give me that look…I'm married to you…remember? Which means I also know you in some ways better than you do. So who's it gonna be? Kai? Celeste?"

"Illiana."

"Really?" she said leaning back a little. "I know since her memories have been restored that she is now also your equal in knowledge and power, but she's also not the same woman that fought alongside us in Desolace. Her heart's in the right place and in time she will be a great jedi. I also agree with you that…God forbid…should something happen to you then she should become the next Grand Master, but right now she is still a grieving mother and widow. I know her relationship with Ollie changed greatly afterwards and they remain close friends, but are you sure she is the right person to help this new potential discover his…potential?"

"You said _potential_ twice just now."

Demira slapped his shoulder. "I'm serious!"

Daneel grabbed her in both arms. "So am I," he said with a smile. "I understand that things for her have changed tremendously this past year, but she is also strong willed. She is a great jedi _now_ , and I feel that Jacen needs to see how someone who has endured so much pain and suffering still walks the path of the light and perseveres. His past is also filled with pain and loss much like hers. My hope is that his self –doubt will erode once he sees how strong Illiana is despite all the trials and tribulations she has faced and may yet still in her lifetime. It's a lesson I believe he needs to learn to discover not only his ability but his place in the world. This last point is something that he has been searching for since his youth when his family was taken from him."

"I hope you're right."

"When have I ever been wrong?" he teased. She poked his nose with her right index finger and then held it before his visor. "You're never gonna let that go…are you? I told you not to touch anything."

* * *

 _Jacen raced through the street towards his home. Flames rose high into the night sky and he could feel their heat on his skin as they burned the buildings along the way. He choked from the smoke, but he couldn't stop. Screams of agony and fear assaulted his ears as his neighbors cried out to him begging for him to save them, but he ignored them. He had to reach the smithy where his family was cornered by the undead of Arthas' army. A hundred more yards and he rounded the corner only to almost fall as he stopped. He dropped the greatsword of his ancestors on the ground. Fire engulfed the smithy ahead of him. He heard first his mother scream for him, then his sister, and then finally his father. Fear gripped his heart as he stood and stared at the maelstrom of fire and the troll woman standing in the middle staring at him with red eyes. Purple lightning formed at her fingertips and crawled up her arms as she sneered at him._

The morning sun shined into Jacen's eyes through the open curtains of the balcony. He brought his right hand over his eyes and then rubbed his brow trying to wake up from the nightmare. A small blue and yellow bird sang from its perch on the balcony railing. The morning breeze carried the scent of someone cooking outside along with the clangs of swords of those few early risers who practiced in the courtyard. He took a deep breath knowing that those outside would be expecting him soon. Beside him on his left, Madelyn turned on her side as she continued to sleep. He looked over admiring the smoothness of her dark skin and amazed at how barely noticeable her scars had become since the attack in Silithus. With a groan, she pulled the white bed sheets up around her neck, but they still draped to the small of her naked back. Of all the passionate encounters with women he had experienced in his life, last night with her was the most emotionally intense. He loved her although he was afraid to admit it even to himself especially because of the dreams. After she convinced him to stay with the jedi at least a while longer, they spent the rest of the afternoon walking the valley and sharing stories about their pasts, aspirations, and especially about the events that led them to this place. She had already professed her feelings for him, but as his grew towards her he was reluctant to tell her the same. Perhaps it was that deep inside he still doubted himself and felt unworthy of her affections. She was a noble who was beautiful, intelligent, and in many ways very humble despite her heritage. He was a commoner and a mercenary with no allegiances to anyone but himself. Despite their differences and the fact they were almost opposites in every way, he felt drawn to her. Perhaps the truth was he feared that if he admitted to himself that he cared for her then she too would succumb to the flames as had all those he had loved. The more they talked, however, the closer he was drawn to her despite his fears and when they returned to his room he surrendered to his feelings for her as they made love.

Jacen leaned over her and brushed some of her hair from her face. She moaned as she opened her eyes and looked into his. "Good morning," he whispered.

"Good morning," she replied with a smile and a deep breath. "I haven't slept this good in ages, and I could just stay like this the whole day with you."

"So could I, but I have to meet with that jedi trainer this morning," he whispered continuing to stroke her hair. "But before I did I wanted to tell you that last night was…incredible."

"Yes it was," she replied as the reached up and caressed his cheek. They stared into each other's eyes for a few silent seconds before she leaned up to kiss him. When their lips parted, she smiled again. He opened his mouth to speak, but she placed her finger on his lips stopping him. "You don't have to say anything. Last night was magical and we can leave it at that."

"I just…"

"Shhhh," she interrupted. "You go do what you need to. When you return, I will still be here and we can talk then if you wish." She caressed his cheek again. "You're still my knight no matter what. You just concentrate on what we talked about yesterday and be the hero you always dreamed of becoming."

Unsure of what to say, Jacen simply nodded and left the bed to get dressed. His mind wandered as he occasionally looked back to her as she watched him and smiled affectionately. Afterwards he grabbed his sword from a stand on the far side of the room and opened the door to leave. Halfway through the opening he stopped and looked back to her. She waved at him to leave, and without a word he departed. He almost ran into a dwarf on the way to the courtyard as his thoughts raced. He felt a tightness in his chest whenever he was around her, but was that love? He had never experienced it since his family died so he couldn't be certain of what he felt towards her. The only thing he knew for certain was that she was important to him and he remained not for duty or for the job, but for her.

* * *

Olivaw sat at the bar in Fizzle and Pozzik's tavern staring at his sixth mug of ale. His black duster hung over the back of his wooden chair, and across the table Cheyuun drained his own drink which was some concoction that the smuggler tried only once and almost lost his lunch. How the tauren could enjoy it he doubted he would ever understand. Their table sat along the side wall near the entrance to the tavern. Tonight's patrons varied from elves, orcs, trolls, humans, and of course a large number of both goblins and gnomes. Near the back a group of six women performed on stage, the Val'kyr Battle Maidens. Four of them sang vocals while two worked the machines that created the background music. To Olivaw their performance reminded him of his most treasured times on Nar Shaddaa between smuggling runs when a cantina provided the best entertainment and opportunities to unwind after a stressful job. He could never return to that world since that day in Desolace , but Olivaw never regretted his decision to remain on Azeroth. True that he would never fly the hyperspace lanes again or skirt Imperial and Republic patrols as he smuggled medical supplies and food rations to war torn worlds, but his new role amongst the jedi order on this world gave him solace that he worked for a great cause and could achieve his same goals of helping those caught in the middle of two warring governments. The only thing he truly missed was his ship. He slid his fingers through the handle of his mug and lifted it to his mouth. That was the worst feeling when he first arrived knowing the anomaly had destroyed his home for the past twenty years, and when the news from Grogg that pirates had found the wreckage on an island his heart skipped a beat. He never thought he would ever see his baby again. The ale slid down his throat as he tried to drown his sorrow. Daneel forbade him from joining the recovery team. The Grand Master claimed that Olivaw was too emotionally connected to the wreckage that the jedi needed to secure. Damn right he was emotionally connected. How dare the miraluka keep him from _his_ ship!

"I know I warned you that Demira wouldn't like us convincing the mages to open a portal here just so we could get drunk," Cheyuun said as he lowered his mug to the table and hiccupped. "But right now I don't really care if she does get mad."

Since their battle with the Burning Legion, Olivaw could think of no other man he would rather fight alongside than the tauren sharing drinks with him now. Their friendship had grown close since then. Cheyuun had moved his wife and three kids from Mulgore to the jedi compound in Northrend, and the young ones took to calling the zabrak uncle.

"But what if she's waiting with your wife when we get back?" the smuggler said after draining his mug and slamming it on the table. "I'm glad you're here with me because I needed a drink and of course _stuffed shirt_ would never allow anyone to open a tavern in the valley, but I don't want to get you in trouble with your spouse."

"I can handle her," the tauren said with a wave of his hand. A smile crossed his muzzle. "I'll just blame it all on you."

"You're drunk."

Cheyuun looked up at the ceiling as he licked his lips. After a moment he looked back at the zabrak. "Maybe a little. But you..." he pointed his finger at the smuggler. "You're lucky Illiana is off in the Alteracs because I think you are more drunk than I."

"You mean _more drunk than me_ ," Olivaw corrected.

"Huh?"

"You said 'I' and it should've been 'me.'"

"Are you sure?" Cheyuun asked.

Olivaw's eyes searched the table for a moment before he responded. "Pretty sure...yeah...me instead of I...yeah."

"Well...whichever it is...you're just lucky Illiana isn't home when we get back."

The zabrak waved at the bartender for two more drinks. "She doesn't love me anymore...at least not like before her memories were restored."

"She still loves you, my friend," the tauren said as he gently gripped Olivaw's shoulder.

"I'm not so sure..." the smuggler started to reply when he felt a tap on his other shoulder. Both he and Cheyuun looked up at the newcomer just as the women on stage began another song. An orc with graying hair and shaggy goatee looked down at him with red beady eyes. He wore simple workman's clothing. "Can I help you?" Olivaw asked.

The orc leaned on the table with his right hand. ""You have to be the ugliest human I have ever seen," he said in a gruff voice. "All those horns on your head...did your mother sleep with a demon? I'm surprised she didn't kill you at birth as ugly as you are."

Cheyuun released the zabrak's shoulder. Olivaw looked around the orc to a table not far where two more orcs and a troll sat intently watching the exchange. Apparently this one's companions. At another table two humans, a man and a woman, lowered their drinks also hearing the orc. He sighed as he looked back at the red eyes.

"What'd you say about my mother?" he asked as he stood from the table. The orc turned to face him and stood half a head taller. Olivaw's eyes looked left and then right at the breadth of the offender's shoulders and then back into the red eyes. "I'll have you know my mother was a saint."

"She was no saint," the orc replied standing straighter adding to his height. "Especially if she sired a demon spawn like you."

"Don't do it," Cheyuun warned as Olivaw looked over to him.

He smiled as he drew his arm back and then punched the orc's jaw as hard as he could. Pain shot up his arm as he pulled it back and grimaced as he looked at the red knuckles. "Damn he's got a hard jaw," he said to the tauren.

"I told you not to do it."

Olivaw backed up a step and prepared for the orc's response, but the other man simply furrowed his brow and then his eyes rolled back. He fell to the floor with a loud thump causing everyone in the tavern to stop what they were doing and turn their attention to the zabrak standing over the unconscious orc. Even the Val'kyr Battle Maidens stopped singing because of the ruckus. The orc's companions stood up from their chairs as did the human couple.

"This isn't good," the smuggler said to the tauren.

Then he heard a loud whistle and turned his head to see the blonde elf singer pull her fingers from her mouth. "Frostbite!" she yelled just as the troll came up and punched Olivaw square in the nose. His eyes watered instantly as black spots formed in his vision. He fell back and saw a blur of brown just before the blackness overtook him. He wasn't sure how long he was out before he opened his eyes to a light gray blur and his head pounding. Above the ringing in his ears he could hear shouting and things crashing around him. He felt something wet was on his face and shook his head to return his vision. Opening his eyes again, he saw clearly a very large saber toothed cat standing over him. He pushed himself back and then brought up his hands before him trying to ward off the cat.

"Nice kitty," he said now with his back against a wall. He stood up against it while still warding off the saber tooth. "Pretty kitty." It crouched and growled at him. "Oh shit...Cheyuun...I could use a some help here!"

"I'm a little busy," came the reply. He turned his head slightly to see the tauren standing some feet to his left. He held a human in a headlock in his left arm and an orc in his right. The dark haired elf singer had climbed onto his back and was pulling on his mane with one hand while pounding the top of his head with the other. "You're on your own."

* * *

Celeste stood patiently waiting for Jacen near the sparring grounds, and beside her stood a bald human male with a reddish brown goatee. She wore a powder blue shirt with a pink midsection over matching leggings and boots. Contoured leather shoulder guards completed her apparel with golden clasps and a small gold depiction of a dragon just above her waist. The man's outfit mirrored her but in dark red and black. The newest jedi padawan, Scott Daniels, fidgeted as the mercenary approached. Like Celeste, Magnus Weathergear recognized in him an inability to effectively utilize arcane energies and had sought her council regarding this development in the mage hopeful. She traveled to the floating city and immediately determined Scott was Force sensitive. She took him as her padawan to train in the ways of the jedi. One concern for Celeste, however, was the man's competitive nature. He hated failure and losing worse. This morning he held a blunted metal sword in his right hand as Jacen approached.

"I apologize for being late this morning," he stated as he arrived. "I overslept." He doubted she cared why so he didn't offer the reason. She didn't need to know that he spent the night with Madelyn. He unclasped his sword from his back and held it to his side pointed to the ground in his right hand. "I take it Scott is my sparring partner this morning?"

The petite woman smiled as her apprentice stepped into the sparring circle. Several had been arranged in the immediate area. Most of the valley consisted of green grasses and flower plots with several stone walkways from the various points of interest like the grove at the center of the valley and the homes of the founders of the order. All paths led to the temple tree, however. In the exercise area, the sparring circles were actually padded mats imbedded in the ground. Jacen stepped into the one they stood beside and faced his opponent for this morning's exercise.

"He needs the practice as do you," she said as the two men assumed their opening stances. Jacen held his greatsword in both hands before his chest and pointed towards Scott who had assumed the opening position of the Soresu form with his left arm straight out and the sword over his head in his right hand. "While you are an experienced swordsman but unfamiliar with the Force, Scott is a novice at wielding a blade. You should be evenly matched."

"I can hold my own," the padawan said as he stared intently at Jacen. "I have learned much. I will defeat him this time."

"We shall see, my padawan," she replied. "Just remember this is a training session. Our goal is to better ourselves not to determine who is the better duelist." He nodded without taking his eyes off Jacen. "Begin."

The mercenary nodded as he began circling to his left. The padawan mirrored him. Both men possessed similar builds and height, but Jacen doubted this morning he could match his opponent because of the magic the jedi controlled. This would be their fourth bout since he arrived in the jedi valley and so far he had won each time, but the apprentice improved after every session. Steeling his resolve, he raised the blade above his head and lunged forward. Scott countered by spinning to his right and swinging his sword at Jacen's legs. Off balance, the mercenary sidestepped just barely missing the attack and swung wildly holding his blade in his left hand. The padawan was forced to roll under the maneuver and stood up on the far side of the ring. Jacen regained his balance while bringing his sword back into his opening stance. He turned his right foot and raised the greatsword above his head. The jedi crouched holding his sword behind him expecting the mercenary to attack from the high guard. Jacen surprised him, however, by pivoting to his right and shifting the blade to a single handed attack. Weapon in his right hand, he swung backhanded at the padawan's legs. Scott somersaulted into the air to avoid the attack, and as Jacen finished his movement, his mouth dropped as the padawan's sword flew through the air at his face. Out of position, he knew of no way to block the point flying at him and closed his eyes expecting the worst. After a couple of breaths he opened his eyes to see the sword floating just inches from his face. On the far side of the circle Scott stood with his right arm outstretched towards him.

"Padawan!" he heard Celeste shout. He turned his head to see her standing outside the ring and reaching out with her left hand using her jedi magic to halt the sword. "This is not a completion or duel to the death. What were you thinking by using this attack?"

Jacen straightened and turned his gaze to Scott just as the apprentice lowered his right arm. "I was…"

"This sparring session is for learning only," Celeste scolded him. "Jacen is not trained in the Force and so cannot counter a blade thrown with the Force. You know this." The padawan stood straight and lowered his head. "A jedi must be always cognizant of the abilities of their opponent. Your goal is to end the conflict quickly and without bloodshed if possible not always seeking a killing blow. What if Jacen had been someone that could be saved and turned to the light? What if his death could result in a catastrophe worse than any you could imagine? Remember the lesson about my duel with Illiana at the Titan Fortress. Remember the actions of our grand master when he faced Sargeras and how a greater conflict was avoided because he concentrated on stopping a dangerous foe and not concerned about who was stronger."

"Yes, Master," the apprentice said quietly. Then to Jacen he said, "I am sorry."

Jacen watched as the sword floated through the air to Celeste's outstretched hand. "Go to the temple and meditate on your failure this morning."

"Yes, Master."

Jacen watched as the man turned and skulked towards the entrance of the temple tree. Celeste stuck the blunted sword in the ground before walking up to him. He placed his sword in their clasps on his back as he lowered his gaze to her smiling countenance. She placed her hand on his upper arm.

"You showed great poise just now during that exchange," the weaponmaster said with a nod. "Scott is new to our ways and has much to learn about patience. That, I think, will be his greatest obstacle before he completes his training. You, however, have learned this valuable lesson through your experience as a mercenary. This I have sensed in every sparring session."

"I was more scared than poised," he replied as he looked back at the padawan entering the giant tree. "I get the feeling that this morning was more about teaching him something than training me for combat."

"Both actually," she said drawing his gaze back to her. "He needed to learn a lesson in humility. His newfound power has led to no small amount of arrogance that must be tempered. For you, I was hoping to rebuild some of your confidence. By sparring with Scott instead of me you might see that facing a foe trained in the jedi arts is not so daunting a prospect as you believe. I had hoped that it might help you overcome your fear."

"Am I that obvious?" he asked returning his gaze to her. Her eyes sparkled as she gave another nod. He sighed as he looked at the ground. "Lately my dreams have been filled with memories of the fires that destroyed my village. Those nightmares have been absent for many years. I think...I know...that by serving the people as a soldier and then by using my skills as a hired bodyguard those memories diminished because I could make a difference if even just a little. But then I found myself fighting the silithids...holding Madelyn in my arms as I thought she was certain to die and then we came here. I keep seeing those eyes of that troll woman everywhere I look. The flames have returned and it frightens me." He looked back up at her. "I keep thinking back to our first match and how easily you defeated me and what you said about shatterpoints. Then I see Cipher pointing her rifle at Daneel yesterday and all he had was that sword like you all carry. How did she miss him? How am I of value to any of you? How can relying on you to save me keep the fires at bay? Fires that now haunt my dreams and in them I see those red eyes staring at me. I feel as helpless now as I did all those years ago."

"The answers you seek will be answered...soon," she said looking back at him with a slight turn of her head. "It sounds very cryptic, I know, but soon you will understand your value to us and when you discover that...the revelation will wash those flames of fear away."

"Are you finished, Master Celeste?" Both humans turned to see a bald orc in brown jedi robes leaning against a tree not far from them. He gave them a tusky grin as his left hand stroked a foot long braided beard growing from his chin. Jacen recalled his name was Zharn and one of the founding members of this order. He, along with his draenei wife, were shamans and did not use the Force like Daneel and Celeste."I apologize for interrupting, but I have urgent need of your friend."

"Good morning, Zharn," Celeste chuckled as she led stepped from the sparring circle. Jacen followed as they walked towards the orc. "No apology is necessary. What's happened that you need Jacen?"

"We received word from Illiana this morning," the shaman answered as he stood from the tree. "She requires the aid of someone not trained in the Force. Naturally I would have looked for Ollie or Cheyuun, but we can't seem to locate them this morning. It might have something to do with the fact that Daneel won't allow our resident smuggler to join the recovery team searching for his freighter's wreckage. Normally I would go, but Kitali is farther along in her pregnancy that Demira and so I am not allowed to leave. Daneel has decided to send Jacen to aid our elven sister."

"Why aren't you allowed to go?" Jacen asked drawing a giggle from the petite jedi master beside him. He furrowed his brow as he looked at her and then back to the grinning orc.

"One does not upset Mama Bear," Zharn replied as he crossed his large arms over his wide chest. "Draenei can be stubborn at times and my wife particularly so. She says I stay…so I stay."

"And what am I expected to do with this other jedi?" the human asked as he cast a concerned look towards Celeste. She gave a wink.

"She'll tell you that once you arrive in the Alterac Mountains. She didn't specify over the holocom." He waved for Jacen to follow him. "Come with me and I will take you to Demira. The mages have opened a portal and you must leave now. Illiana is waiting for you on the other side."

* * *

When the fight broke out in the tavern on the Speedbarge, one of the gnomes ran from the tavern to find the Brute Squad. They returned about fifteen minutes later to find all of the patrons intermingled and singing with the Val'kyr Battle Maidens. The enforcers looked at each other and then the singing crowd. Everyone had bruises, bloody lips, or black eyes. Several tables and chairs lie in ruin and one of the ceiling lamps looked close to falling to the floor. Amongst the crowd, Olivaw sat in front of the stage in a shoulder hug with the gray haired orc as they raised their mugs and sang along. The Brute Squad left since the fight was apparently over and they doubted anyone would admit who or what started it. After the song ended, the zabrak and orc smiled to each other with a salute and walked their separate ways. Olivaw stepped up to the stage and shook hands with the blonde haired elf.

"Thanks for that back there," he said smiling. "If you hadn't called him off..."

"Any time," she giggled. "Frostbite wouldn't have done anything permanent."

"All the same...I owe you one," he said with a final shake of her hand before turning to meet Cheyuun near the entrance where he was talking to the human he had held in a headlock.

The singer turned to her human companion when to their surprise the orc stood up to the stage with his arms behind his back. He smiled to the human and then closed his eyes and puckered his lips for a kiss. She looked to her friend and rolled her eyes.

"I did it one time in Dalaran and now every orc thinks I will give them a kiss," she scoffed and shook her head.

"Then maybe you shouldn't have written that song about how much you liked it," the blonde giggled. The human rolled her eyes again and sighed heavily.

The zabrak and tauren left the tavern and walked to one of the upper decks of the goblin vessel. At this location several people gathered waiting their turn at mage casted portals to various locations around the world. One gnome pulled out a communicator and spoke with another on the other side before approaching a mage about his destination. Olivaw and Cheyuun, however, would not utilize the local mages. Using a holocommunicator, they contacted the mages in the jedi valley. The device was just similar enough to the gnome's that no one took notice. After a few minutes their portal opened and they walked through to a waiting Demira standing nearby with her arms crossed over her chest and tapping her foot on the ground. Behind her stood the human mercenary apparently waiting on the mages to close the portal and open another one. Smuggler and warrior looked at each other and realized they both looked like they had just come from a fight. Cheyuun's hair did not hide the bruises underneath, and both of Olivaw's eyes were blackened from when the troll had punched him the nose. Jacen gave them a side glance as he walked past and into the newly opened portal behind them. They shrugged and each gave Demira a sheepish grin. She rolled her eyes as she spun on her heel and walked away without a word.

Olivaw looked up at his friend. "That could've been worse."

"The day isn't over yet," Cheyuun replied as he watched Demira continue to walk towards the jedi temple tree just as his wife emerged from the entrance.


	8. Part Seven: Galen's Castle

**Part Seven: Galen's Castle**

Jacen emerged from the portal onto an arched stone bridge leading to what appeared to be a castle built directly into the mountainside. Dirt lined cracks along with stained stones told him this structure was centuries if not millennia old. Some stones were missing across the expanse and he could see the valley floor hundreds of yards below. He tentatively walked across as he surveyed the chasm and the small plateau around him. Giant pine trees littered the mountainside for about another hundred feet of elevation to the timberline. No visible road or trail led to the arch he stood upon. Ahead of him on the other side of the bridge he saw a glow of what he surmised was a fire or some sort of artificial light. As he approached the end nearest the castle, he spotted a single high elf woman standing about half the distance to the giant black door of the high parapet walls of the courtyard. A small campfire burned to her side and nearby a tent was erected with two makeshift chairs. She never turned as he approached. Jacen had not actually met Illiana, but the stories the others told him didn't match the beautiful woman waiting for him. Her raven hair billowed in the cold mountain wind and she wore a black dress with dark red sleeves. He stepped beside her and yet still she did not react to him. This woman had schemed to destroy the Sunwell and nearly succeeded had Daneel not interceded at the last moment. Grogg mentioned she unleashed torrents of lightning at fel orcs and satyrs in Desolace during their fight with the Burning Legion, but as he looked now at her serene face he could not believe this was the same woman who during those times was described as being full of rage and hatred. Eyes closed and hands steepled before her chest, she still had not acknowledged his presence. Unsure of how he could assist her with whatever she needed, he sighed and started to take a step towards the gate.

"Please do not approach the courtyard," Illiana whispered. He halted and gaped at her now open eyes. They were much like a human's with pupils and the deepest blue irises he had ever seen. "The ghosts inside are restless and will attack any interloper…at least any that is trained in the Force." She closed her eyes and then raised her chin. "I am Illiana, by the way, and you must be Jacen. Celeste has told me a few things about you. However, we must await Galen's return. He has been investigating this dilemma from the fringes for even he they have expelled from their domain."

"Is this Galen another jedi?" he asked looking back towards the castle. "No one back at the temple mentioned him before."

"He was when he lived," she replied reopening her eyes and relaxing her arms to her sides. Jacen spun his head back to see her smiling at him. "They didn't mention that you were coming to a haunted castle…did they?" He shook his head and gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. "I suppose I should explain a few things." She motioned to the two chairs not far from the fire. He walked to one and sat down, then she followed to sit across the campfire from him. "When I was pregnant with my second son, I came here to study under him to learn how to alter Celerion's appearance. My firstborn, Herion, was born with elven features but with red skin like his sith grandfather. I had hoped to learn the same rituals my father used on me while I was still in my mother's womb to ensure my second child would not bear the same red marks as his older brother."

"I was told they were murdered. I am sorry for your loss," Jacen offered, then lowered his head and shuffled his feet. ' _Very tactful_ ,' he thought. ' _You just had to bring up the part about her children's deaths_.'

Illiana continued to smile as she rested her hands in her lap. The warmth of the fire felt good as he watched her across the flames. "Herion was murdered," she said as her eyes searched the sky while she recalled the memories. "Celerion and my husband, Langhaer, died in Silvermoon when the Scourge sacked the capitol." Her eyes returned to gaze into his but he still kept his head lowered in respect. "The assassin stopped here before that and confronted Galen in this very castle. He was old and knew he could not defeat her, but in death he could gain the power he needed to defend the ghosts of the castle unlike he could in life."

"Wait…protect the ghosts?" he asked leaning forward in his chair. "Why would they need protection? Protection from what?"

"Necromancers for starters," she answered, "and there are Force users who know rituals that can bind a ghost to gain their power. You are not simply the flesh sitting across this fire from me now, but the spirit within that constitutes who you are…the body is only a shell for your true essence."

"That is not quite how it works, but will suffice for now." Jacen turned his head towards the ethereal voice coming from his left to see a medium built man with long white hair and a pointed goatee appear from nowhere…a ghost. The specter wore robes similar in style as those of the jedi. "There is a presence in the vicinity I have not felt before," it said to Illiana, "and it only recently appeared. In fact…it arrived just after our friend here."

"Are you certain, Galen?" she asked as she stood from her chair and pointed towards the human still sitting. "I have not sensed anyone else but Jacen here."

"I am," the ghost replied. "That you cannot sense it explains something to me for it feels both alive and yet not."

"Another apparition?" Jacen asked as he stood. "A strange ghost?"

"No. This is something else entirely. I have known my companions within the castle for decades before my own death so they are very familiar to me, but this new presence is… it feels hollow…somehow it is here and not here… alive and yet not. I cannot explain it better than that."

"Perhaps I can."

The female voice came from the other side of the bridge. Jacen joined Illiana and Galen as their gazes turned to see the familiar troll woman with fiery red hair standing with her arms crossed over her chest. She wore a silver dress that opened at the waist and left her light blue skin and toned abdomen bare. Her sneer highlighted her small tusks that just barely protruded from her bottom lip. A shiver raced down the mercenary's spine as he looked at those red eyes yet again and couldn't shake the feeling that she followed him wherever he went. He stood still as the elven sith pulled the hilt of her lightsaber from her waist and walked to the near side of the bridge. Beside him the ghost of Galen disappeared. Jacen's heart raced as fear tickled his mind and Illiana walked closer to the troll.

"A Force apparition, the potential, and the daughter of Narcis all in one place," the troll said. She pulled a hilt from the belt at her waist similar to the elven sith's. "Now why would you bring him here, I wonder? He does not possess the knowledge to sedate the spirits within the castle."

Illiana stopped at the apex of the bridge and ignited the crimson blade of her father's lightsaber. The troll in turn ignited her weapon which also glowed red. Jacen stared in horror remembering what the others at the temple had said about those from Daneel's galaxy who wielded the red blades. Dark siders were what Grogg called them, people who utilized the Force to gain power through fear and domination. They tortured and killed innocents without remorse. He stepped back when he saw the white lightning form along Illiana's arms and he remembered the tale of what she had done in Desolace. These two women only justified his thoughts he expressed to Madelyn the previous morning. He was in over his head.

Galen's ghost suddenly reappeared behind the troll. Without a word he reached out and grabbed her head with both hands. "You will tell me what has happened to my friends," his voice echoed throughout the valley.

"You won't get the answers you seek from mere dirt, old man," the troll laughed and then dissolved into a pile of earth at his ghostly feet.

Jacen gasped as Illiana extinguished her lightsaber and the lightning along her arms dissipated. Galen stepped back from the pile of dirt that had just seconds before appeared to be the troll. He looked at Illiana with concern for even the woman's lightsaber had disappeared. Nothing remained of the troll or her weapon. The human's mind raced trying to fathom what had just happened and where the troll might have gone. She wasn't a figment of his imagination because both Illiana and the ghost reacted to her presence. "What the…what was that?" he asked the elven sith. He could not hide the fear in his voice.

"A trick," Illiana growled as she turned back to look at Jacen and then behind him at the castle. "But she has revealed herself as the one behind the turmoil inside."

Galen's ghost floated to hover beside her. "You studied the holocrons at Drakus' fortress. Was this something the old masters…"

"No," she interrupted, "this is something else. Not arcane magic for I could feel her in the Force. This trick is something new entirely and nothing ever mentioned by the old masters. It is no Force technique or ritual that I am aware of and I imagine Daneel hasn't seen anything like it either." She then looked directly at Jacen. "We don't have much time. You will need to enter the castle now and reach the lowest level where the library is located. Galen will tell you the way and how to get there."

"Me?" he protested pointing a thumb at his chest. "Why me? And why did she refer to me as _the potential_?"

The ghost of Galen left Illiana's side and floated towards him. "Because those inside know both of us and so bar our entry into the castle," he said before stopping in front of Jacen. "I believe now that this woman has performed some ritual that confuses the ghosts into thinking that old friends are foes. They have always feared the living, but a Force sensitive they will refrain from approaching. They will not interfere with you nor impede your progress to the library."

"Force sensitive?" the human asked. "Why me and not Grogg or Celeste or one of the other jedi? I'm not even sure what exactly this _Force_ is!"

"He means one untrained," Illiana said still behind Galen on the bridge. "Did you not tell Celeste that during battle you can sometimes sense when and where a foe attacks and use that to gain an advantage?" He nodded but his brow furrowed unsure of what she was saying. "This is but one trait of a person attuned to the Force. It is the energy created by all living things. Some of us are sensitive to it and can manipulate it much like a mage does with arcane energies." Jacen's jaw dropped as the realization hit him. "Yes, my friend, you are one of us though up until now you did not know it. The Force flows through you just as it does us, but since you have not been aware until this moment you can succeed where Galen and I have failed."

"How?"

"In the library I believe lies the answer or, if we're lucky, quite possibly the source," the specter of Galen answered. "Deep within you will find a pile of robes at the base of a desk. On top of that desk you will find a stone tablet with obscure and ancient writing. Bring it back to me outside the castle and I think I can stop whatever this troll has done." He turned his head to Illiana. "And perhaps I might also deduce the nature of her little trick she just pulled off."

* * *

Zirani removed the silver three banded helmet, one across the top and each side of her head, and laughed. Placing it upon the angled and sterile metal desk before her, the troll stood and walked to a wall lined with close to a hundred dials and readouts that all pointed to zero except the first gauge directly behind the desk. The needle slowly lowered to close to zero but never quite reached it. She knew that each subsequent dial increased the rating of its predecessor by a factor of ten hinting at the potential to harness almost unlimited power. This abandoned Titan facility was located miles beneath the surface of the planet near the bottom of the crust where it met the mantle. Centuries ago her master had discovered this marvel of technology which apparently even the Black Dragon Flight remained unaware or assuredly Neltharion would have used it before his demise. She turned from the gauges and walked twenty feet to a railing overlooking the heart of the machinery that harnessed the geothermal energy of the planet. Giant electrodes rode up and down on columns that had to be at least a hundred feet thick of solid Titan steel. She felt the electrical current as it tickled the tiny hairs on her arms. From her location within the facility she could not see the top of the shaft nor the bottom and the nearest electrode was at least ten miles from where she stood. This was a single ventilation shaft and there were hundreds more within the complex that spanned under almost all of Kalimdor and the ocean east to the Maelstrom. This massive facility once powered the prisons of the Old Gods. The Dragon Aspects, the guardians and watchers, were all most likely set up as a failsafe system should something happen to the main facility she walked in now. The primary exhaust port of the complex was located near the Maelstrom and what was once the Well of Eternity, but since the Sundering hundreds of miles had been destroyed rendering much of the machinery inert. Zirani believed this last point was why the Old Gods exerted so much effort in convincing Deathwing to create the Demon Soul and his actions that helped to collapse the Well. In destroying the port, the facility would shut down leaving a weakened failsafe system in place once Deathwing was under their control. In some ways they were successful, but still the majority of the prisons endured. None of that really mattered, however, as somehow this section remained active allowing Nyrexia and her apprentice to harness vast amounts of power. Her master theorized that the Well of Eternity was actually the waste of the energy conversion process and the arcane byproduct actually impacted evolution and proved beneficial to the living creatures on the surface. The Titans used their superior intellect to capitalize on every component of their creations. Despite this many mysteries remained for the sith and her apprentice, but Zirani knew they would never know the answers unless a Titan told them and she didn't care. All she concerned herself with was what advantages the facility could provide.

The acolyte turned on her heel and began walking east along the causeway for a mile before entering a long corridor. Her long black robes, a very stark contrast to the more provocative dress of her false image before, flowed behind her as she thought back to her recent encounter and imagined the surprise on their faces when her facade faded into the dirt she manipulated with the device back in the room behind her. Three times now she had used it to track the human mercenary after his arrival in the jedi compound. Nyrexia had commanded her to use the machinery to influence the locals in several locations across the globe to maintain the unrest they had seeded over the past year. Her master cared nothing for the mercenary, but his sensitivity to the Force intrigued Zirani enough to warrant monitoring his activities with the jedi. She didn't believe the pureblood sith could succeed with her plan to control Sargeras through the rakghoul talisman, and so she schemed for when she would replace her master as the leading dark side user in the world. If she could instill fear in the man, then he could be turned and become her apprentice. The Force was strong with him, and this last visit should further his anxiety. Their spy in the jedi compound had relayed this human's conversations with several people about this very subject and especially with the woman he saved in Silithus. When the old sith perished, Zirani would require an apprentice of her own and this man was perfect for the role.

The corridor ended at a tram station within the complex. She stepped into the small personal cab that she used whenever traversing the great distances between the shafts and workstations. The machinery was built for usage by much larger beings like the colossal Titans, but the trams like these hinted at a species similar in size to her that must have maintained the complex alongside the creators. Not the mechagnomes like other facilities in Uldum or Ulduar, but larger people most likely long extinct. The small conveyance started to move into a tunnel lined with lights that divided it into quarters. Zirani closed her eyes as the car gained speed. Her first time riding the tram she stared out the viewports in amazement for only a few moments until the strobe effect made her nauseous. Her thoughts drifted to the man who spied on the jedi for her and her master. The human once studied in Dalaran as a mage at the behest of the old sith, Drakus. He was Force sensitive and so could not utilize the arcane energies of the mages, but with several techniques he posed as one of them while spying for the dark lord. When Illiana defeated Valeria, the man sought Nyrexia yearning to learn the ways of the sith so he could seek vengeance against the hybrid for killing his sister. The dark lord already had Zirani as an apprentice, but she opted to help the man by placing him amongst the jedi in the past year as a spy. Although she promised him that he could deliver the killing blow, her master never intended to let the man get close to the daughter of Narcis. Nyrexia had more personal reasons for killing the offspring of her ex-husband. As part of his cover he now trained with the weaponmaster of the jedi and frequently reported their activities to a mage posing as an emissary of the sin'dorei. That mage in turn reported her findings to Zirani, and she divulged some of that information to Nyrexia. Some things, however, she kept to herself as leverage for the day when she would confront her master and slay the old sith as any proper apprentice should. She felt the tram car decelerate and inhaled deeply. That day was growing near.

When the cab stopped, the troll acolyte opened her eyes to see the blonde blood elf standing outside with her hands crossed over her chest. She wore purple and black robes common amongst the mages with shoulder pauldrons alight with magical fire. Zirani stepped from the tram car and stood her full height before the shorter mage.

"I require a portal to the castle keep in the Alteracs," she demanded.

"As you wish, master," the elf replied with a bow. "I also have a report regarding the encounter in Booty Bay." The trolls' brow furrowed as the elf straightened. What could she possibly report that the acolyte didn't already know? Her interest piqued, she gave the other woman a slight nod of her head. "The alien from the ship wreckage," the mage continued, " has apparently adjusted to the truth of her circumstance well."

"And why should I care? She served her purpose in distracting the jedi. What she does now no longer concerns us."

"She has requested an audience with the Grand Master and it was granted. They should be speaking at this very moment."

"And?" Zirani asked.

"Mistress…the alien was an experienced spy and is expected to not only make peace with her old adversaries but join them…as their spy." She bowed her head and slumped her shoulders. "I believe my position there has been compromised. I am almost certain she knows that I am not who I claim to be."

"Interesting," the troll replied as she started to rub her chin. Perhaps what the elf feared was a catastrophe could serve to her advantage. She never liked Scott Daniels and always saw him as a rival despite that Nyrexia only marginally aided the human. If she allowed the elf to continue her duties then this alien might discover that Scott is also not what he claims to be. The mage began to tremble. "Continue your duties," she finally said.

"B-but, mistress…"

"Continue but make it appear that the human is your master," the acolyte stated with a smile. "The alien surely doesn't understand the various alliances of this world, so she will not know that you are spying for a sith. Report to me directly what she does and under no circumstances reveal your concerns to the human. He must remain oblivious to our goals for this to succeed."

"Won't that compromise his position?" the elf asked as her trembling subsided. "If they discover that he is the spy and I am the messenger…"

"Exactly," Zirani interrupted. "You are merely a messenger and nothing more…the conduit for this human and whatever faction he is spying for. And once they discover he is the true leak…you will return to me."

"You mean to sacrifice him…a valuable asset."

"It is what is necessary," the acolyte chuckled. "A good diversion always needs a patsy." The elf grinned and nodded her head in recognition. "He has served his purpose, but you…I have other plans for you once this alien has fallen prey to our scheme."

"I understand, Mistress."

* * *

Daneel sat on the far side of the council table from the main entrance of the chamber. To his right sat Zharn and Kitali. To his left were Demira and Kai'moira. Olivaw and Cheyuun remained standing on either side of the main door, and directly across the table from the Grand Master sat the miraluka spy, Cipher. Daneel leaned forward on the table with his chin resting on his clasped hands as he listened to the former Imperial.

"It takes a spy to recognize another," she began, "And you have a spy amongst you."

"I have not noticed anyone suspicious here," Kitali retorted as she crossed her arms above the bump of her belly. She was in the sixth month of her pregnancy. "And as the rest here can tell you I was once a spy as well."

"You have been out of the game for too long," Cipher countered with a smile as she turned her head towards the other woman. The draenei started to point across the table at her. "That is nothing to be ashamed of nor am I trying to insult you, but you no longer possess the necessary skills for espionage or counter espionage."

"I was quite good at spying," Kitali stated and then turned to look at her spouse. "You tell her…I had you all fooled for how many years?" He shook his head trying to dissuade her. With a huff she looked across Daneel to her closest friend. "Demira…you tell her…I was a damn good spy."

"I don't doubt that at one time you were a more than capable spy," Cipher said drawing a glare from Kitali. "But over time one like us loses those skills the longer they have removed themselves from the game." She turned her head towards Daneel. "I am still in the spy business…I have never left it. You do have one amongst you, and if you will allow me to follow her to her handler I believe I can solve at least a part of this riddle for you."

"Why would you help us?" The miraluka turned in her chair to see Olivaw with his arms crossed over his chest. "Up until a few days ago you believed us your mortal enemies. I find it hard to imagine you could alter your loyalties so quickly."

"Loyalties to whom?" Cipher replied. "The old alliances have no meaning here and as I am aware there is no way to return." She turned back to face the Grand Master. "I have been trained since childhood in espionage…I don't know how to do anything else. You may have been my enemy, but now on this world you are familiar and that is enough. I offer my services and abilities to you if you will accept them. It will give me a purpose that just yesterday I no longer possess."

"I think that is acceptable," Demira said as her husband nodded. "Can you at least tell us your name now that you are working with us?"

"I have no name," the spy answered. "Cipher was all I was ever called by the Empire…I have no other identity."

"So who is this spy here in the compound?" Kitali asked still upset that her espionage skills had been questioned.

Cipher turned her head towards the draenei. "A blonde elf, but I think she might be working with another here. I will need another day to make certain of this last part." She then looked at Daneel. "I will report my findings to you personally in twenty hours."

"Follow this lead wherever it takes you," Daneel finally said. "We need answers…and I sense sooner rather than later. I have felt a disturbance in the Force unlike any other."

* * *

Jacen traversed the long stone floor to the open door on the far side of the massive room. Galen's description of the castle interior and then the spider web of catwalks paled in comparison to the reality within. The main keep was similar to others he had seen in the human kingdoms, but the catacombs were unlike anything he could imagine. He walked along a couple to see what they lead to from the central column. Each catwalk emptied into a large tomb lined with sarcophagi. The oldest were located near the summit and the newest at the bottom and even those appeared to be tens of thousands of years old. Little golden statuettes were buried with the dead depicting a race of beings unlike any he had seen. He never imagined there existed on Azeroth a race of tripeds with a tall oval shaped head and four arms. How could something like that even evolve on this world and yet their remains were housed in every single tomb. He discovered a sarcophagus with the lid ajar and found himself staring at the four empty eye sockets of the strange skull. The sizes of the bones suggested these people stood no taller than the average human. He lost track of time as he explored the two tombs before remembering that he had come here for a specific purpose. Now as he walked across the lowest level towards the library, he thought he understood why so many ghosts remained here and also why Galen felt drawn to this place when he still lived. He never studied the histories nor did he care to remain in other tombs across the globe as he worked as a bodyguard for one expedition or another, but this place…

He stopped just before the open door of the library. Something inside glowed and it's illumination flooded the immediate area around the door. A presence tickled the edge of his consciousness, but when he tried to focus on it whatever it was eluded him. His brow furrowed as his eyes searched the cavernous room. Something or someone was out here with him. Finally his eyes focused on a metallic object along the wall to his left, and with one last look around him he started walking towards it. The further from the door he got the darker the room became. After a hundred yards he stopped and looked down at the hilt of a lightsaber lying on the floor. Again he searched his surroundings with his eyes, but nothing moved or made a sound. With a heavy sigh he knelt down and reached out for the hilt. Just as his fingers touched the metal, that tickling suddenly became a jolt that knocked him onto his back. He lost consciousness when his head hit the floor. After what seemed like hours, Jacen opened his eyes to a huge orange glow. He could feel heat on his face and body, but that wasn't right because the catacombs had been quite chilly. Then he heard muffled screams and horses. He closed his eyes tight trying to ward off the dream he now recognized. Not again. The screams became clearer and the heat from the fires hotter. How long must he endure this nightmare? Why couldn't he let go of the past? Fear began will well up in his mind.

"You failed them," he heard her voice say. He opened his eyes and realized he was standing in the middle of his village. The buildings burned and Arthas' men killed his loved ones, but his attention focused not on them but the troll woman standing across the square staring back at him wearing the same silver dress she wore by the bridge. A cold shiver raced down his spine. "It is because you refused to act that they haunt you. Your weakness is why they will never let you forget."

He felt the hilt of the lightsaber in his right hand, but he never picked it up. "This isn't real," he stated as he raised his chin in defiance. "It is but a dream and a memory."

"It is as real as you believe it to be," the woman replied as the red blade of her lightsaber ignited.

Without warning she leapt towards him with weapon raised above her head. He rolled to his side just as she sunk her blade into the ground where he stood. His fear of this woman pounded in his skull. He felt the contact of the hilt by his thumb, and with a slight movement he activated the lightsaber. The blue blade appeared with a snap/hiss. He brought it before him to hold in both hands much as he would with his familiar greatsword. The troll withdrew her weapon from the ground and faced him with a sneer. She crouched while holding her lightsaber in her left hand assuming the high guard while holding her right hand in a low guard before her. Jacen had never seen a stance like this before. Sweat poured down his brow and face as he stared into those red and yellow eyes. She flinched just slightly and then she jumped high into the air…too high. He retreated a step as he brought his weapon up along his shoulder to block her attack. The red and blue blades clashed showering the combatants with sparks. The crackling of the electrical discharges deafened him as he struggled to keep her blade from inching closer to his flesh. She possessed incredible strength pushing down upon him until finally she overpowered him and his blade slipped allowing hers to cut into his shoulder. He retreated as he cried out in pain, but he held firmly onto the hilt while spinning to block her next attack aimed at his neck. Sparks outshined the flames of the burning buildings as he deflected her move and spun on his heel to counter with an attack of his own. She just missed with her block and the blue blade cut a gash into her left upper arm. She howled as much in pain as she did in anger. Backing a step she reached out with her right hand. Jacen felt something slam into his chest throwing him back several feet into the side of one of the buildings of the village square. The fires burned his flesh and he cried out while pulling himself from the wrecked wall. Through the dancing flames he saw her approach with her weapon pointed to the ground now in her right hand. Fear almost overwhelmed as he stared at her visage through the fires. He closed his eyes and swallowed hard as he pushed back on that fear. If he allowed his anxiety to overtake him it would lead to a fatal mistake. Inhaling deeply he opened his eyes feeling a little calmer. Suddenly the fires dissipated as did the screams. Now he saw not the burning village but as it was before that night when Arthas betrayed them. He stood away from the intact wall behind him and it was then he noticed he no longer felt any pain.

"If this wasn't real then you wouldn't have felt the pain you did during our duel," she scoffed and then pointed her lightsaber at him. "Mark my words well, human, that we will meet again. Next time when we face each other it will not be in your dreams but in the nightmare of reality."

He opened his mouth to answer but suddenly she vanished as did the village around them. His eyes widened as he realized he was still in the mountain near the library and kneeling next to the lightsaber hilt now held firmly in his grasp.

* * *

Deep in the Alterac Mountains sat a castle on a small plateau. Daneel and Adaria had visited this structure several months prior only to find it deserted for decades or centuries with the exception of a single map of Azeroth. On the lowest level they found a large round room with stone statues of sith lords along the outer walls. Zirani now knelt in the center of the floor. She opened her eyes and growled deep in her throat. The human proved to be stronger in the Force than she imagined as she faced him in his nightmare. More troublesome was that he managed to control his fear despite her efforts to fan its flames in his mind. She had come to this place because it held a special connection for her through the Force and had hoped that might aid her in turning the mercenary. Even untrained he was powerful and their confrontation while only on a spiritual plane showed her that he was more dangerous than she realized. Looking at her left arm and feeling the phantom pain of his cut, she bowed her head and closed her eyes. She needed guidance.

Zirani never remembered living amongst other trolls. Nyrexia had found her barely alive in a burning village after the humans and elves had destroyed it during an earlier war. Only an infant when the sith saved her, she had never seen another troll until late in her teens when the dark lord sent her on her first trial. At first they welcomed her, but the more she spoke the more distanced she became…her accent was much different than theirs. Through the years she tried to emulate her native tongue, but no matter how much she tried she could never quite sound like her people. Now in her forties, she no longer cared about trying to live amongst other trolls or even if she could lead them once she became her own master. Nyrexia sought what she believed was ultimate power, but Zirani focused instead on eventually creating her own empire built upon the ruins of both the Alliance and the Horde. Lately, however, the two factions kept finding common foes and so they warred with each other less and less. Garrosh Hellscream had offered her hope that perhaps the old feuds had returned, but now peace once again existed between the two factions. She needed them to destroy each other before she could realize her ambitions. Before any of that she needed her freedom from Nyrexia and her own apprentice. Turning the human to the dark side might be a more difficult proposition than she imagined. She inhaled deeply. Here in this room surrounded by the likenesses of the dark lords she hoped to ascertain just how to accomplish her goals. She called to their spirits through the Force hoping one might heed her call.

* * *

Jacen returned to the Illiana and Galen just as the sun was setting. He told them of his dream and how the lightsaber hilt had triggered the vision. Galen professed that it had been his when he lived and that now the Force was telling them that Jacen should inherit the jedi weapon. He tried to argue, but Illiana agreed with the ghost and offered him the chance to become her apprentice. He still wasn't sure he possessed the power they said flowed through him and he declined her offer. Jacen stood near the fire that still burned while the jedi walked to the edge of the cliff overlooking the valley. He could tell she was disappointed with his answer, but he knew that she was asking of him something he could not give her. He still didn't understand what the Force was, and these jedi knew no fear and yet every day he felt his more profoundly with each visit by the troll woman. How could he be one of them if he could not control his fear?

"Take him to the Caverns of Time," Galen's ghost stated after Jacen declined Illiana. "Perhaps by seeing the past he can appreciate the power he possesses."

"Daneel would never agree to such a thing," Illiana stated as she looked out over the valley of the castle. "Travelling through time is something that neither he nor Kai'moira believes…"

"They are not from this world and do not understand, but with the guidance of the Bronze Flight there is no danger of seeing what happened in the past. His actions will not affect our present." Galen floated to hover beside the elven sith. "He has been told what the jedi have done, but I believe he needs to experience it himself to fully understand what he is and is destined to become."

Illiana turned to face Jacen. He opened his mouth to speak, but she held up her hand stopping him. "Perhaps you are right," she said to Galen while still looking at the human. "He has felt the Force and yet cannot conceive of it or what it means to him and his future…and I sense that we are running out of time."

"Time for what?" Jacen asked holding his arms wide to his sides.

"Whatever this troll and her master are planning. I have felt a disturbance in the Force that is unlike any other. And I sense that you will play a vital role in the events ahead of us." She turned back to look out over the valley. "I fear what will happen if we fail."

"You are a _real_ jedi," Jacen said lowering his arms. She was the first of the jedi to admit to any kind of fear to him. "I am just a guy that has waking nightmares. You and the others have a power that I can never understand." He hesitated a moment waiting for her response, but she said nothing nor did the ghost who had grown strangely quiet. "What is this fear you have that you think _I_ can help avoid?"

"The war that is to come," she said not looking back. "I will do what I must so that more mothers do not have to bury their children." She looked back at him with tears running down her cheeks. "If that means taking you to the bronze dragons to finally open your eyes to what you are then _that_ is what I will do."


	9. Part Eight: Betrayal

**Part Eight: Betrayal**

Ciara stepped through her portal onto a sandy beach. Her blonde hair whipped about her face from the salty breeze. The duplicitous nature of her mission plagued her thoughts as her eyes searched the shoreline for the one she came here to meet. Scott Daniels believed she served his needs and Zirani the opposite, but in reality the elf's loyalty belonged to another and they were _her_ assets. She fed both just enough truth that neither would question her motives. However, her concerns she voiced to Zirani about the alien spy were real. Cipher didn't have eyes to read, but Ciara was certain the miraluka knew that she was spying for someone. She doubted she could continue without compromising one part of her mission or another so she came to this isolated location. He would know what to do, he always did.

She watched the shore birds scamper along the ebbing tide as she continued walking along the shoreline. After about fifteen minutes she spotted a beige tent erected at the edge of the sandy beach and the line of trees of a small forest on this island. A thin column of smoke rose from an almost dormant campfire between the sea and the small structure. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw him standing near the water's edge wearing his black robes and the hood pulled up over his head. He gazed across the waters to the mainland of Kalimdor barely visible on the horizon. Ciara inhaled deeply as she walked towards him. He made no movement as she approached, but she knew that he was aware of her presence.

"Why did you choose _this_ place of all places in the world," she asked as she stopped just behind his left shoulder. "Nothing remains here but sorrow and death."

"That is exactly why I have come here," the man answered. The baritone of his voice sent a chill down her spine. Not one of fear, do not be mistaken, but one of love. "The tragedy of Theramore echoes through the Force," he continued. "I can hear the screams and feel the fear as those in the city realized at that last moment their fate when the mana bomb was dropped upon them."

"How very macabre," she said looking towards the fallen city. Finally the man turned his head and she could see his face. A neatly trimmed dark beard framed his jawline under steel blue eyes. The hood obscured his hair, but she knew it well enough. Chestnut colored and feathered back from the part on the left side, she had felt its softness on her face on many a morning. "Please don't tell me you are relishing in those like your brother would."

"I am not my brother," the man replied turning his gaze back across the sea. "There is a lesson to learn here about the abuse of power and the cost to the innocent. In fact…Jaina Proudmore stood in this exact spot when it happened. Her feelings at that moment I can also sense through the Force despite her connection to the arcane. It was here she was changed forever." He crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. "The pain of loss is too great in her and feeds her hatred much as it does in Scott. I do not know if she can be saved from the hunger of vengeance that so far she has kept at bay at the behest of others. If it were not for the Wrynns, I believe she would act again as she did that morning on another island north of here. That is a concern for others to contemplate, I suppose, but an interesting parallel to my own."

They stood silent for a moment before Ciara returned her gaze to her love. "Caidan…Zirani means to sacrifice him." He said nothing but lowered his head. "He's your brother! We can't just abandon him!"

"The jedi will not harm him as long as he does not become aggressive," he whispered. "Violence is not their way."

"It's not them I worry about," she countered. "He is so focused on the elven sith that he has started to lose control. Just yesterday the weaponmaster scolded him for foolishly attacking his sparring partner. If the alien spy doesn't figure him out, I fear the small human will _if_ she hasn't already."

Caidan turned his head just enough she could see his right eye through the hood. "What would you have me do? We have been estranged for too long…he will not listen to me anymore."

"At least try. Don't pretend to not care…we've been married for too long so you cannot fool me. I know you care otherwise we wouldn't be in the middle of all this," she stated while spreading her arms wide. "It is time you revealed yourself."

* * *

The human spy looked down at the grave markers near his feet. Such injustice that these people warranted a proper burial but it was denied his sister. He schemed and plotted for over almost a decade after he learned of her fate at the hands of the daughter of Narcis. He held no illusion that Nyrexia only aided him because it served her needs, but he cared little for what the ancient sith desired for this was an opportunity to reach his quarry. For his entire adult life he studied the Force and trained in the martial arts of the jedi and sith all in preparation for the day he would stand face to face with the woman who murdered his older sister. The philosophies of the light and dark didn't concern him, only vengeance. The hardest part of all of this was deceiving he woman who trained him. He genuinely liked Celeste and keeping his secret from her was proving harder and harder each day, but this close to his prize he could not falter nor let his feelings for the jedi interfere with his goal. If the new arrival succeeded, then Illiana would return and he was ready to face her at last. Blood demanded blood.

As he stared at the gravestones he never sensed the woman watching him from across the valley. Lying prone and looking through a specially modified sniper scope, Cipher had followed him through the highest levels of the temple tree to the single branch that led directly to the mountain summit. After determining where the human was heading, she hurriedly ran to this vantage hoping to see him meet his contact, but now after an hour he remained alone. She learned that the jedi also suspected this man after she offered her services to the jedi Grand Master. She should have known they would have determined this human was not all he claimed to be. Daneel revealed that it was Celeste who first noticed the inconsistencies in her padawan, but instead of confronting him she feigned ignorance of his intentions hoping that he would lead them to whoever machinated the areas of conflict across the globe. Cipher at first felt dejected that even in this they would deny her the chance to employ her skills, but surprisingly they accepted her offer and divulged all they knew up to this point.

Scott Daniels, they learned, met twice daily with a blonde elven woman posing as a mage emissary from Quel'thalas. They had not ascertained what his specific intentions were nor if who he worked for was actually the same party involved in the mystery that occupied their attentions. The mage, it seemed, was even more elusive with her allegiances because after each meeting she would open a portal and leave the area for a short while before returning. Frustrating things, those portals, because one could not track where she went or who she met with on the other side. Cipher hoped that this day she would at least learn the human's intentions. She had activated the sound receiver on her rifle hoping to hear her quarry's conversation but without the mage present she learned nothing except that the longer he waited the more nervous he became. He paced for another hour by the graves when she spotted an orc emerge from the temple. Cipher had not learned his name, but she knew he was a shaman that had arrived in recent weeks, who had pledged himself to the jedi, and studied the shamanistic arts under Zharn. The human noticed the other's sudden arrival. This was not good.

"Celeste," the spy said into a wrist communicator. No answer and the human and orc started talking. "Celeste…can you hear me?" Still no response. The orc moved towards the nearest gravestone and knelt on the ground. The human stood a few feet behind him and without warning reached for the lightsaber hilt on his waist. "Can anyone hear me? We have trouble by the graveyard."

"Celeste here," she finally heard from the communicator. "I was occupied. What trouble?"

"Your fake apprentice is about to kill someone," she said just as the human activated the blade of his weapon. The snap/hiss of the lightsaber caused the orc to turn his head while the human raised it above his head in both hands. "I'm taking the shot, "she stated as she depressed the trigger of her rifle.

Scott looked down at the orc kneeling on the ground. No one ever came up here and so until now this location had been perfect for his meetings with the elven mage. This man's presence complicated things greatly. The orc claimed he came here this day of all days for some shamanistic rite about honoring the jedi fallen who he viewed as the ancestors of the order. Regardless the reason the orc visited the graves, he couldn't allow any witnesses. Fortunately the shaman was a new arrival and so his disappearance could be explained with a few lies. His thumb triggered the activation switch and he raised the blade above his head just as the orc turned to look back. A quick and decisive blow would end his life. Suddenly he felt a searing pain in his right hand and dropped the lightsaber to the ground. He cried out as the orc leapt to his feet and fled towards the temple. Looking at his hand he saw a perfectly round two inch hole clear through it. He wrapped it with his outer robe and stared across the valley to the opposing mountaintop. Only one person in the jedi enclave could have made that shot. Cipher.

* * *

Jacen stared in wonder at the walls of the cavern awash in energies flowing with a rainbow of colors. Periodically one section of the wall seemed to open into a scene from another part of the world and at a different time. In his adventures he had heard the tales, but this was his first visit to the Caverns of Time and those tales paled in comparison to the reality of what he now witnessed. Beside him strode Illiana apparently oblivious to the incredible views surrounding them. Since Galen suggested using the Caverns to awaken the Force in him, the elven sith led her charge through the winding cave tunnel with only one agenda. They were not alone, however, as another member of the jedi order accompanied them, Kuro, the last black dragon. She assumed a human form wearing dark robes like the jedi with Raven hair and a complexion similar to his. Initially he feared meeting her because of the reputation of the Black Flight, but the elven sith assured him Kuro was quite friendly. Not like he had an say in the matter because once Illiana made her decision, she contacted Kuro at Wyrmrest Temple and a red dragon opened a portal from Galen's castle to Northrend. No sooner than they had walked through that portal when she joined them to walk through a second that deposited them just outside the Caverns of Time.

"Zaladormu will guide Jacen down the path we choose," Kuro stated as they walked. "I think the best time for his awakening would be when Dorak sacrificed himself to save you and Grogg from the Legion."

"Why not when Daneel saved you from the leviathan?" Illiana countered. Jacen looked from one woman to the other, but both stared straight ahead as they walked. "Or perhaps a time neither of us was present…when Daneel saved Zharn from Selene."

"We could send him back further to when Talisora tried to protect your son or when she freed your husband and the other elves from Nyrexia."

"Possibly," the elven sith replied. "I suppose any of these examples are good ones to show him a jedi at their best."

They emerged from the tunnel into a vast open cave with several smaller ones branching out from various points of its somewhat circular wall. An elaborate hourglass some forty feet high hovered above a dais made of stone and just under and beside that rested a semi-transparent form of a bronze dragon. Several more dragons flew around the cavern causing Jacen to wonder just how high the ceiling was since in some places it appeared low like a tavern room and in others so high he could not see it. The two women kept talking as the led him to the dragon by the hourglass, but he was so amazed with what he was seeing he didn't hear them until finally they stopped. Jacen looked ahead and into the eyes of the bronze who examined him with half closed eyes.

"Normally this request would be denied," the dragon's booming voice said. "I am still concerned with the reason for this visit, but since this comes from both Alexstrazsa and Ysera with approval by Nozdormu…I will grant it." It lowered its head and then addressed Illiana. "The sisters stated that you wish to send him to a time when your leader displayed what it means to be a jedi?"

"Yes, but we are still discussing which event that should be…there are too many to choose from."

"The Dragon Queen suggested a period when she accompanied your leader," Zaladormu breathed. "A temporal instance has been prepared for this point in the past for your charge."

"Thank you," Illiana said with a bow. Jacen noticed that Kuro copied the elven sith and so he did as well.

"Do not thank me yet, child of one not of this world," the bronze replied and then turned his gaze to the human. "The path has been exposed, but the question remains…will he see it?"

* * *

Celeste raced from the jedi temple onto the mountaintop to find her padawan holding a device to his right hand. She recognized it as one that Illiana had brought from the Titan fortress and was used for repairing injured tissue. She half expected to find her apprentice lying dead on the ground after Cipher warned her that she was about to fire her weapon, but apparently the sniper chose to wound her target and not kill him. The weaponmaster pulled the hilt of her saberstaff from its clasp at her waist and approached her charge. He hadn't noticed her arrival as he continued to use the device on his injured hand.

"Scott!"

He turned around to see her approaching and cursed under his breath. He dropped the device and reached out with his left hand. The hilt of his lightsaber floated from where he dropped it to his outstretched hand and the green blade ignited as soon as he gripped the hilt. Surprisingly the sniper's shot only hit him and the lightsaber itself remained unharmed. Ignoring the pain from his right hand, Scott gripped the weapon with both and brought it before his chest in the opening stance of the Ataru form. Celeste sighed as she ignited both violet blades over her saberstaff.

"I have studied your technique, Celeste, and I am prepared," he stated. "I know more about the Force than I let you believe and have practiced extensively to face a foe with a double bladed weapon."

The weaponmaster held her hilt in both hands with thumbs pointed from each other. She smiled as the single weapon separated into two individual lightsabers. After her original blade was cut in half by Okus in Desolace, Celeste developed this new weapon with a greater understanding of her abilities and the need for versatility in future encounters. She crafted two single bladed sabers whose hilts could be magnetically fused at the base to form a single saberstaff. With this configuration she could engage an adversary with her familiar dual bladed weapon, two single lightsabers wielded in each hand, or just a single blade depending on the situation. She lowered into a crouch facing her padawan with the blade in her right hand held above her head and the left down by her knee…the opening stance of the juyo form.

"You were saying," she said. "We have known you are a spy for quite some time. Surrender now before this gets ugly. You cannot defeat me."

Scott raised his lightsaber with a growl and poised to strike at his former mentor when both combatants felt an electrical tingling in the air just before a portal opened some twenty feet from them and on the opposite side of the gravestones. A man wearing hooded black robes over black plasteel armor emerged and behind him the blonde elf Scott had been waiting for. Ciara gasped when she saw Celeste and Scott facing each other with activated lightsabers as the portal closed behind her. The green and violet energies cast eerie reflections on the snowy ground. The man with her, however, did not react with surprise at all and instead reached up and pulled back the hood of his robes exposing his face. This time Scott gasped and lowered his weapon. Celeste watched unsure if who was coming through the portal was friend or foe. According to the report from Cipher, the weaponmaster had expected this new arrival to be the elven mage her padawan had come here to meet, but this development required caution on her part. A slight tap on her wrist opened the communicator allowing those in the council chamber below to listen in on what was happening. They would await her signal before arriving, and at present she could handle Scott and a mage. The addition of a male human was unexpected, but Celeste was patient enough to perceive the surprise in her apprentice and so hesitated in calling for reinforcement from the other jedi.

"Caidan?"

"Hello…brother," the newcomer stated.

The padawan repositioned himself and turned his attention back on Celeste who had not wavered from her stance. "You can join me when I get justice on the woman who killed our sister!"

"No, Scott," Caidan answered. He stepped towards the gravestones and pulled a hilt from his own belt. "I will not seek vengeance against a woman who does not deserve it."

The padawan turned his head and gaped at his brother. "Does not deserve it? How can you say that? She murdered our father! She killed Valeria!"

Caidan shook his head as he replied. "I loved her as well, brother, but in this you are wrong. If you pursue this path then when will the cycle of vengeance end? Your hatred of her has blinded you."

"Traitor!" Scott yelled as he turned back to Celeste who while watching the exchange between the two men still remained unmoved. "You are no brother of mine or Valeria!"

Moving quicker than most could see including Ciara, the man in black leapt over the gravestones and clubbed his brother in the back of the head with his hilt. The green blade disappeared as Scott groaned and fell to the ground unconscious. As he placed the hilt back on his belt, he turned his head to face Celeste who finally relaxed but still kept her blades active. The wrist communicator maintained an open channel allowing Daneel and the rest of the council members to hear everything that had just transpired.

"I am sure you have many questions and I am prepared to answer what I can," he offered. Ciara approached to his left and stopped beside him. "My wife will as well." He glanced down at Celeste's wrist and gave a slight nod of his chin. "I know the rest can hear me…I bear no malice towards the jedi despite my brother's deception."

"And what guarantee can you provide me that this is not some trick to try and get closer to Illiana?"

Caidan pulled back on his hair to reveal an ear pointed at the top. "Because we have something in common that she will be interested in. While my twin," he said pointing to the unconscious man at his feet, "bore the traits of our human father, I inherited more from our elven mother." He looked up at the sky. "Last time I saw Illiana I was only a child, but I remember her defiance that day and the anguish she endured afterwards to protect those who could not protect themselves." He looked back down at Celeste as Ciara took his hand in hers. "I have not come here to harm the same woman who saved my life many years ago, who ended my life in slavery at the hands of a sith lord, but stop my brother who has wrongfully blamed her for the death of our sister…the same woman who murdered her son."

* * *

Jacen emerged from the temporal portal expecting to see the barrens of Silithus, but instead he stood on the top of a mountain overlooking a vast wasteland surrounding the ruins of a city. Smoke from fires within the fallen walls darkened the sky. On the far side he could see the ocean. His heart skipped a beat as he recognized where he was but not when. He was gazing upon the ruins of Stormwind City! He dropped to his knees as fear overtook him. He was not in the past but some horrific future when the human capitol had fallen.

"Not the vision you were expecting to see?"

Jacen turned around to see a high elven man in simple black robes standing some ten yards from him. His golden hair billowed in the winds. Jacen shook his head as he returned his gaze to the ruins of the city.

"I know the others intended to send you to a past event, but I interceded and brought you here." Jacen looked back at the elf as he approached. "I am Kairozdormu."

"I heard you were dead…killed by Garrosh Hellscream when the Iron Horde came through the Dark Portal."

"In the infinite strands of Time no one is ever truly dead," the bronze dragon replied. "I intend to show you a possible future should the jedi order fail."

"Why?"

"Because, unlike my other self, I hope to restore the proper timeline as the Titans intended...and you are the key."


	10. Part Nine: Azeroth Dies

**Part Nine: Azeroth Dies**

Jacen followed the bronze dragon through this reality's version of the Caverns of Time. Unlike before, no waves of energy crawled along the rocky walls, no visions of events past or future interrupted the long tunnel to the cave, and the once majestic hourglass lay in ruin on the ground in the central cavern. Before coming here, Kairoz had opened portal after portal to various locations of the world to show Jacen what had become of Azeroth after Nyrexia unleashed the rakghoul plague. The smoking ruins of Stormwind, the collapsed world tree of Teldrassil, the ruins of Dalaran and the crater it created after it fell from the sky, the hollow husk of Orgrimmar, the crumbled buildings of Silvermoon City and now empty Sunwell, but worst for Jacen to see was the lifeless shell of the jedi temple tree in Northrend. No sign of life at any location, but most disturbing was the last place they visited, the Dark Portal. In the valley below them, Jacen watched close to thirty hairless white creatures milling around with some fighting each other. Under their feet rested the broken bones of hundreds of people. Jacen vomited.

"This was the last stand of civilization," Kairoz had stated as Jacen tried to recompose himself. "The few remaining jedi led the survivors here in an attempt to escape to Draenor. As you can see…not all of them made it."

"Are those…are they rakghouls?" he had asked and pointed.

The bronze dragon nodded. "And this is not all that remains. There are perhaps thousands more scattered around the world. The largest population resides in Ironforge. The dwarves were the last to fall to the plague. These remain here because on occasion someone tries to return from Draenor only to succumb to the beasts lying in wait."

The human still felt sick after they left and arrived now at the Caverns. Kitali once told him of the fear she still felt after facing these creatures years before aboard the _Vindictive_ , and the jedi believed that threat long over with the sith ship's destruction when it was flown into the sun. He couldn't conceive of what the shaman tried to tell him, but now after seeing the rakghouls firsthand he understood the draenei's fears because now he shared them. Worse was hearing Kairoz tell him how the world ended. He continued to tell the tale as he led Jacen through the cavern to a small alcove along the right side.

"The cities were the first to fall," the bronze said as they walked side by side. "For Stormwind City it began when a ship drifted into the harbor. The city guards investigated the vessel only to encounter the creatures. They killed all aboard thinking they had averted a crisis, but then those that had been scratched began to turn. Within three days the entire city was overrun with rakghouls. Orgrimmar fell in much the same way when infected traders entered the goblin quarter. At first they thought the plague would only affect humans after hearing about the fall of Stormwind, but this virus doesn't distinguish from one race or another…it affects all. By the time the rakghouls invaded Quel'thalas they numbered in the millions. The blood elves exhausted the arcane energies of the Sunwell as they tried to defend themselves, but they met the same fate as the rest of the world as some elves were bitten or scratched and began to turn. But the worst was yet to come.

"I remember the fear in Daneel's voice when we heard of dragons succumbing to the plague," he continued speaking as he stopped just outside the alcove. "I then felt that same fear grip _me_ when I witnessed the Life Binder succumb to the plague. Imagine seeing one of those creatures back at the portal only hundreds of times larger with a massive wingspan and this one having once been the mightiest of us. I can only imagine the horror of the people in Dalaran…those who believed themselves safe because they floated above the ground…the fear they must have felt when the former dragons flew into the city and the plague ripped their civilization apart. When it fell…the landscape was covered in dust and debris for hundreds of miles in ever y direction. That cloud rose high into the sky and could be seen as far away as Ashenvale. Everything living in the fallout area died from suffocation." He looked over to the human with tears running down his cheeks, and then he turned his head to gaze at the cavern ceiling as he told his horrific tale. "The surviving armies of the Horde and Alliance banded together and with their flying machines they carpet bombed the cities that had been overrun in the hopes of stopping the plague, but that too failed to end the threat. Soon all peoples scattered because they were afraid of catching the disease. The more populous an area…the faster it spread.

"Eventually the survivors were forced to band together to survive," Kairoz said as he looked back at the human. "That was maybe a few years after the initial onslaught of the plague. By then most of the wildlife had also turned into deformed versions of rakghouls. Farmlands had already been destroyed or depleted, but when people couldn't even hunt to survive they had no choice but to gather into groups. Some did so simply to survive, but others because they believed it would hasten the inevitable…they embraced their fate. The remaining jedi then devised a plan to lead the few remaining survivors through the Dark Portal to Draenor. A few stayed behind hoping to one day find a cure and so I too stayed with them. There are so few of us left now that we cannot even keep the beasts from gathering before the portal. I mourn those poor souls who venture back to this side hoping the plague has ended and they can return to their old homes and rebuild only to fall to the creatures lying in wait. At least we have solace in knowing that they are ignorant of how to use it otherwise Draenor would have also fallen. We have no capability to destroy the portal or we would have done so already."

Jacen bent over and placed his hands on his knees. His head swam as he listened to Kairoz describe the apocalypse. Everyone he ever knew and everywhere he had been was all gone…all of it. He dry heaved because he had already vomited all he had eaten. A hand touched his shoulder, and he looked up to see the dragon with a sad smile on his face.

"I know it is difficult to hear how the world ended, but trust me…it was worse watching it happen and knowing I was powerless to stop it."

"You dragons and the jedi have a plan though, right?" the human asked as he straightened up. "I mean, to stop the plague and return the survivors home and rebuild? Have you found the cure that you stayed behind to find? It can't be the end of everything. There has to be some hope…right?"

Kairoz's smile waned. "I am the only dragon left and there are only two jedi who still live. If there is a cure to be found, we do not have the resources or knowledge to discover it." He walked forward a few steps and then stopped, placed his hands behind his back, and turned to face the human. "The only other dragon joined the survivors when they went through the portal to Draenor. At the time, only Kuro and I remained of all dragons. By then, Sargeras had taken all rakghouls with any ability leaving only those with barely the intelligence of a beast. What world he attacks with them now I do not know, but those creatures that remain are little more than wild animals following their most basic instincts. They feed and breed and nothing more… and they can be cannibalistic."

"When does this happen?" Jacen asked. "I mean…in my time when does this all take place?"

"From your perception…five years…five years after you left to come here," the bronze replied. "But waiting that long…it would already be too late. The time to stop Nyrexia and her apprentice…from your perception…is now. Too much longer and the end as you see it here is inevitable."

Kairoz walked into the alcove and motioned for Jacen to follow. At the back a door sat ajar on its hinges. The bronze dragon walked up to it and then deftly moved it aside to reveal a lift going deep underground. He turned his back to the human and with a nod of his chin indicated they would ride the elevator down to somewhere. Jacen inhaled deeply before joining the other on the lift car. Kairoz activated a dial near the entrance. Jacen's stomach lurched when he felt the lift begin its rapid descent.

"Deep underground the Titans built a facility that they kept secret from even the Black Dragon Flight. In fact, the only dragon who knew of its existence was my former leader, Norszdormu." Light from the surface diminished leaving them in complete darkness. "I am sorry for the lack of illumination, but it will be miles before we see any again."

"It's a little unnerving," Jacen admitted, "but not as much as what I've seen so far. You were saying that only the Bronze leader knew of this place deep underground, but I thought the Blacks kept domain over the planet and everything under the surface. Why keep this secret from them?"

"I suppose as a failsafe," Kairoz replied from his left. "I've learned that they left several secrets from one flight or the other in a fashion of checks and balances. But specifically the facility we are traveling to now. You see…it ran the prisons of the Old Gods. Neltharion's fall is a prime example of their foresight. Imagine if he had known of this place when he lived and the horrors he could have unleashed."

Kairoz's words hung in the darkness as Jacen listened their breathing combined with the thrum, thrum, thrum, of the lift car as it descended the shaft. During the trip, up to this point, the human felt lighter than usual because of the speed of their drop to the facility, but suddenly they decelerated and now Jacen felt much heavier and like the floor was trying to push up through his legs. If the dragon experienced the same he said nothing. More unnerving was that because of the darkness Jacen remained ignorant of just how deep they had traveled beneath the surface. One comforting development, however, was a slight glow coming from under the lift car along the edges of the floor.

"We are almost there," Kairoz said to his left. He could see a faint outline of the dragon. "The other two and I have been studying this facility for the past twenty years and only in the past few days have we deciphered the secret to ending the nightmare of this timeline."

The deceleration increased as did the amount of light. Jacen could now see some details of Kairoz's face. "Which two survived?" he asked.

"No one you would know," the dragon replied as the lift stopped. A set of doors opened and standing on the other side was a small green skinned woman with black hair tied into a tight bun and very small tusks. She opened her red eyes as Kairoz introduced her. "Jacen, I would like you to meet Kailea…the daughter of Grogg and Celeste."

"A pleasure," she said in a voice that so eerily sounded like her mother's. Jacen also noticed the woman stood only a couple of inches taller than the human he trained with in his own time. Except for her hair, skin, and eye color along with her small tusks, Kailea was almost a spitting image of Celeste. She looked up to the bronze and said, "Dorak awaits you in the command center. He has discovered something that will be important for our friend here, but he wants to speak to you about it first."

"Would you be so kind as to give our guest a tour of what we discovered here?" he asked her. She bowed her head once and then stepped aside to allow the two men to exit the lift car. Jacen emerged into an expansive room some two hundred yards across and thirty yards high. In the center a large set of consoles were arranged in a semi-circle and above each glass screens lit with graphs, numbers, and charts. He also noticed that the other walls each had a single door set in the center. "Jacen," Kairoz said causing the human to return his attention to the dragon. "Kailea will show you some of the important areas of this facility and some you might find very interesting. We will reunite afterwards. Just follow her instructions as you tour this place. I can tell that you have already noticed that there will be many devices here that will be very strange and alien to you."

He nodded as Kailea motioned for him to follow her. She led him across the room the farthest door and stopped just before it. She even walked like her mother, and the black two piece outfit showed the same level of physical conditioning. As she touched a panel on the right side of the door, Jacen looked back to see Kairoz enter the one that was on the left side of the room when he emerged from the lift. He turned his head when he heard the hiss of theirs, and looked through it to what appeared to be a small vehicle with three seats. She entered first and then he followed to sit across from her. The door slid shut behind them. Kailea then reached under her seat and pulled out two black pieces of cloth and handed one to him.

"This car will take us to one of the ventilation shafts of the complex," she said as he took the cloth from her. "We'll be traveling at close to two hundred miles per hour, so the lights of the shaft will have a strobe effect that can cause nausea. To lessen that effect we will need to wear these blindfolds during the trip."

"How far underground are we?" he asked as he untied his ponytail and then placed his blindfold over his eyes.

"Close to forty miles," she replied. "We are near the bottom of the crust where it meets the mantle."

He felt the car begin accelerating through his seat. "Kairoz told me this all started five years after the I came through the portal to this timeline. I don't recall Celeste or Grogg talking about children…"

"Because I was only an infant when the rakghouls first surfaced on the planet," she answered. "I have lived almost my entire life in this facility. My father brought me here after mother died." She said nothing for a moment, and Jacen didn't want to press any further because he could tell this was a painful memory for her. "Mom was in Dalaran," she finally whispered. "She was there when it fell from the sky. She didn't survive."

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"There is no need…I have no memory of her," Kailea said. "But father always said I reminded him of her in almost every way."

He looked down at his feet under the blindfold. The reflection of the light was mesmerizing and his mind wandered as she spoke. He could see the weaponmaster's face in his mind and almost the fear she must have felt as the city fell and created the crater he saw earlier with Kairoz.

"Father was devastated," Kailea continued. "All I can remember of him was sadness up until his last days. I haven't seen him since I was five. Dorak said that one day he told the others that he had to find my mother's remains and left us. I never saw him again."

Again she grew silent. The flashing reflection began to make him dizzy, so Jacen closed his eyes. "Who remained of the jedi then?"' he asked.

"Dorak, his mother, a man called Caidan, and you," she answered.

"Me?"

"Yes. You were our grand master," she replied.

Jacen's mind raced with more questions. He was the grand master? How? What had happened to Daneel? Illiana? The blue woman? They were jedi, not him. And then a realization hit him as he remembered the jedi enclave as it was when he left to meet with Illiana at Galen's castle. He recalled the statue near the tree in the grove and the name on the memorial.

"Dorak's mother…is she…Demira?"

"Yes. He was named for his uncle," Kailea answered. "I believe she was…I mean…is pregnant with him when you came here."

"What about the others? Kitali was also pregnant. What happened to her child?"

"They live in Draenor," she answered. "Along with Kuro, they led what few survivors we could find through the Dark Portal. At first we were not sure it would work because of the actions of the other Kairoz. Khadgar destroyed it on the other side, you see, when the heroes of the world faced the Iron Horde just as in your timeline, but in ours he did not remove the residual energies that kept the portal active from this side. Zharn went through first to see if it was even possible to use that world as a refuge. It took them thirty-five years to rebuild it, but it worked. When he came back to Azeroth, he'd been gone only a few days to us, but on the other side he aged and returned to us an orc in his late seventies." The car began to decelerate. "Master Kai'moira joined them when they went through to the other side."

"Why did it take them so long to rebuild it?"

"The original was constructed with the blood of thousands," she replied. "The cost to repeat that was too high, so they found another solution which required decades. It was the fulfillment of a promise that Exarch Yrel made and upheld in our most desperate time of need. Fortunately the portal on this side remained unchanged. The temporal imbalance of the other Kairoz was corrected when the construction was completed on the other side. Now the portal goes to a whole Draenor and not a desiccated Outland."

"How can that be?" Jacen asked. "If the other Kairoz was from another timeline, and there is one here, then how can the same events happen in two separate realities?"

"Because this one was not killed by Garrosh," she answered. "Like the other one, our Kairoz felt he was doing the right thing by opening the portal to the past, but once there he realized the error of what he had done. Thus the two timelines separated at that point. He returned to Azeroth, but too late to stop Nyrexia and the disaster he hoped to avoid…came true."

"So why didn't everyone go to Draenor? Why are you and Daneel's son still here?"

"For me…Dad stayed behind to guard the entrance to this facility. I was a very precocious child…I wouldn't leave him." The car stopped and Jacen reached up to remove his blindfold. When he looked at Kailea, he noticed that she had loosened the bun and her hair now fell down along her shoulders. It was wavy just like her mother's. "Dorak stayed with his mother. In her depression, she refused to leave saying Azeroth was her home. She died of a broken heart." He gaped at her. "I haven't told you…Daneel and Illiana perished trying to protect Darnassus and the World Tree."

"How?"

"They died the same way as the elder Dorak in Desolace. When they realized there was no hope of saving either the tree, the city, or of stopping the encroaching rakghouls, the two most powerful jedi on Azeroth each unleashed a Force explosion which was felt all over the world. The blast was so potent that the tree itself was destroyed. The wave of energy leveled the forests of Ashenvale and everything on the northern half of the continent perished, but by then all that remained were rakghouls. They killed millions of the creatures…almost three quarters of them worldwide gone in minutes. It was their sacrifice that gave the rest of us time to gather the remaining survivors and lead them to the Blasted Lands. Sargeras took what remaining rakghouls he could utilize and left Azeroth having never returned. Before that he led them in a coordinated effort to destroy all life on the planet. Now all that remains are thousands instead of millions and they are disorganized being nothing more than mindless beasts. Demira was never the same after that." The door opened and she stood up. Outside Jacen saw a room similar to the one they left. "I'm surprised you haven't asked about _her_ ," the half orc said drawing his gaze. She gave him a polite smile. "Aren't you the least bit curious what happened to _her_?"

He followed her out of the car and into not a room as he first thought but a very large and long corridor. Periodic lighting continued for hundreds of yards with light and dark areas like the stripes of a caterpillar. They walked in silence down that corridor as she said nothing while waiting for his response. Truth was he really didn't want to know what happened to her. Part of him hoped she fled to Draenor with the others, but part of him was afraid she suffered the worst. They continued this way until they entered a room to the left with an angular desk in the center. Rows of gauges lined the circular wall behind it. To their right, extremely large electrodes rode up and down on rails for miles. Their electrical discharges tickled the hairs on his arms and head. She stood beside him as he stared in wonder at the machinery ahead of them. Finally he looked down into her eyes, and she wore that same smile still waiting for his answer. He closed his eyes and sighed. He had to know no matter how much it may hurt. He gave her a nod before opening his eyes prepared for whatever she might tell him.

"You're wife, daughter, and grandson were amongst those that went through the portal to Draenor. They live in peace on that world."

A rush of relief coursed through him. Madelyn survived. Then a realization hit him. A daughter and a grandson? "How many years has it been since I left…I mean relative to this timeline?"

"Dorak is thirty years old," she replied as she turned to walk towards the desk. He stood and watched her trying to count the years and months knowing that Demira, from his perspective, was still pregnant with him. "Your daughter is twenty-nine. I believe that…in your time…she was recently conceived."

Twenty-nine years old…his special night with Madelyn was now even more so because he was going to be a father. Kailea kept talking to him and pointing to the dials, but he didn't hear her. Back in his time, the woman he saved and had come to adore and maybe even love was now pregnant with his daughter, and she didn't know yet. He was both excited and afraid. Suddenly he envisioned himself in nine months holding his child and anxious to show her the wonders of the world, but which one would he show her? One alive and thriving or another destined to become a wasteland of misery and death? He closed his eyes and held his breath. He would do whatever he could to give her the first world.

"Master Jacen?"

He opened his eyes to see her now standing by the desk and holding some sort of helmet consisting of three prongs that wrapped around the head. "Excuse me, but did you just call me _master_?" he asked.

"Yes…you did train Dorak and then me," she said smiling. "You haven't heard a word I said about the power readouts…have you?"

He swallowed hard and then started walking towards her. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to wrap my head about what you told me about my…my daughter." He stopped beside the opposite side of the desk from her. "You were saying?"

The half orc gave him a slight chuckle. She pointed back towards the dials and at each as she spoke. "I was saying that this room we are in now is one ventilation shaft of a facility that extends under almost all of Kalimdor and the ocean towards the Maelstrom. It harnesses the geothermal energy of the planet giving us near unlimited power. These dials measure the output of the facility with each one increasing the power of its predecessor by a factor of ten. Ten times ten times ten times ten and so on to the last gauge on the right. This particular device," she said holding the helmet, "is the same that Zirani used to track your movements across the globe and terrorize you. I remember a tale you mentioned where she used it to manipulate common dirt into a facsimile of herself outside of an ancient castle. It was not magic or the Force she used, but science left behind by the Titans when the world was born. It is this same technology that will end it."

"End it?"

"I will leave that for Kairoz to explain," she said. "Speaking of which, we should return to the lift berthing compartment. He should have spoken with Dorak and returned by now."

With a nod, Jacen followed the woman to the car and the journey back to the entrance. During the trip it was easy for him to see Madelyn's face and imagine her reaction when he returned to his time to tell her she was going to become a mother. Then his thoughts drifted to the sights he had seen with Kairoz before coming down here and the tale Kailea weaved about the fates of the jedi as they tried to save the world and its people only to fail. He now understood why Illiana sent him here. She had lost her sons and although she couldn't know, she was giving him an opportunity to save his own daughter. It was a chance she never had. The elven sith told him he was a jedi as well, and just as the car arrived at the entrance he vowed to himself that he would learn their ways if for no other reason than to save his child. When the tram doors opened, they were greeted by an elf wearing brown jedi robes and long white hair. Over his eyes he wore the same kind of metallic covering worn by Daneel.

"Master Jacen," he said with a bow. "It is good to see you one last time." He turned his head towards Kailea. "The countdown has begun."

"One last time?" Jacen asked.

"The time has almost arrived for your return to your own reality," the elf said. "You didn't tell him?" The half orc only nodded and then left their side to walk towards the consoles in the center of the room. He motioned for Jacen to follow him towards the lift to the surface. "The last time I saw you was when you defended the portal to Draenor as the others escaped. Kairoz and I watched from afar as you fought off rakghoul after rakghoul before they overwhelmed you, but you gave the others enough time to flee and close the portal behind them. I watched you die, and next to my mother's death it was the darkest day of my life." They stopped at the lift entrance. The doors were already open and waiting for him. "After father died…my mother loved him so much that she lost the will to live. I stayed behind because I couldn't leave her behind to die alone. Nothing I did, however, could bring her the happiness she felt at my father's side." He smiled at the human and pointed to the lift. "Kairoz awaits you on the surface. Return home, Master. Return and stop the sith woman so that my mother will remain happy the rest of her days."

Jacen stepped into the lift and turned to face Dorak. "I will try," he said as the doors closed. During the ascent he tried to feel the Force as he had down by the library in Galen's castle. It was there, tickling the edge of his consciousness. He closed his eyes, raised his head, and opened himself to it. It felt different this time like it was strained and weak, but he sensed it. At the top, he opened his eyes but Kairoz was not there to greet him. He stretched out through the Force and felt him outside the cavern. He followed his feelings and outside he saw the bronze dragon in his natural form sitting atop a hill overlooking the shoreline and gazing towards the setting sun. Using the Force to enhance his physical abilities, he bounded up the side of the hill and stood beside the dragon. Kairozdormu smiled when the human approached and stood to his full height.

"In my youth I dreamt of being a great hero," Jacen said as he looked out upon the waters with the bronze. "But since then I have squandered my life wallowing in my own misery. Now that I gaze upon the skeleton of my home, I can no longer stand aside while others struggle to save the world. I would rather die than see Azeroth reduced to this."

"I have one last thing to share with you before you return," Kairoz said. He waved his right forepaw and before them lines appeared in the air. A single straight green line ran from horizon to horizon with a jagged yellow one that at times ran along with it and then at others below. Several blue lines branched from the yellow and darted off in many directions. They faded to almost invisible while the green and yellow grew more vibrant.

"This is a sim

Jacen stepped towards the portal and stopped short. He turned to face the dragon. "One last thing I must know. Dorak mentioned a countdown. Countdown to what?"

"I stated before that we studied the facility below for a specific purpose. We learned how to activate the self-destruct and bypass the Titan overrides to begin the overload and destroy this world. In two hours it and everything within one million miles will be vaporized."

"Why?"

"The disease of this reality cannot be allowed to persist and possibly infect the others. To protect the plan, this timeline and this world must end. In two hours this Azeroth will die." Jacen started to protest, but the bronze stopped him with a wave of his paw. "The three of us are prepared for this and have been for some time. We cannot leave with you for that kind of incursion could actually cause more harm than good. No. We are prepared to meet our fate along with this reality. I am sure they are below in the facility lying with each other to enjoy their last moments. I came here to see the sun set one last time. We are at peace, my friend, so please…do not mourn us."

Jacen nodded and stepped through the temporal portal and back to his reality. Two hours after his departure, Azeroth exploded creating a new asteroid field in that timeline.

ple representation of the charge given to the Bronze Flight by the Titans," Kairoz stated. "When the Titans created Azeroth they devised a plan for its existence throughout time. That plan is represented here by the straight green line. The yellow line is the actual real timeline that you came from and what we bronzes try to maintain in accordance to the green one. All of the various temporal incursions were to return the yellow in conjunction with the plan, but as you can see, we have been largely unsuccessful for several millennia."

Jacen examined the graph as Kairoz spoke. The dragon pointed to a place where the yellow line deviated sharply from the green. "This event was when Sargeras brought the sith to this world. The Titan plan persists without otherworldly interactions, but they also knew that their lost brother and others might arrive and interrupt the plan. That is why we maintain the timelines and sometimes manipulate reality by intersecting them…to offset those events. The arrival of the orcs, the draenei, the altering of history centering on the destruction of the Well of Eternity…even the arrival of Daneel and the other jedi…all were controlled incursions to correct the real timeline that was altered by the sith's arrival on Azeroth. Although they failed in Sargeras' mandate, their presence alone was enough to derail the plan almost completely." A portion of the graph grew larger. A blue line brightened that dropped sharply from the yellow and then suddenly ended. Another branched from the same point and approached the green line closer than the yellow had been for almost ten thousand years. "This is the instance where you will return to the real timeline. Succeed in stopping Nyrexia from unleashing her rakghoul plague and the plan can be achieved in another few centuries. Fail and what you have seen here today will be Azeroth's fate."

"You mentioned before that you thought me the key to averting disaster," Jacen said as he turned his attention from the graph to the dragon. "I am only now beginning to understand my connection to the Force. You said the time to act is now, but I do not know enough to stop this…not on my own. How then can I be the key?"

"That thing that Dorak needed to speak to me about when we first arrived in the facility?" Kairoz replied. "That was the location of a holocron…a jedi device…in your time or more accurately the person who knows where it is. When you return, you must find it. It will awaken your abilities almost instantaneously. When you have opened its secrets…you will be a master on the same level as Daneel and Illiana. Then and only then will you know what you must do. I cannot tell you the specifics for I cannot see the event itself, but I believe it is the occurrence, with your actions, that can restore the plan to its rightful place or at least closer than it has been for thousands of years."

"Who is this person?"

"Adaria," Kairoz answered. "She found it in her youth with her brother, but they did not know what it was so they left it alone. She will know where the holocron is located and how to retrieve it." He waved his paw again. The graph disappeared and a temporal portal opened. "Do not fail, Jacen. The fate of the world now rests in your hands."


	11. Part Ten: The Quagmire Deepens

**Part Ten: The Quagmire Deepens**

Illiana was shocked to see Jacen emerge from the temporal instance within five minutes of his departure, but even more by the hardness in his eyes. He said nothing as he approached but instead turned to his right, followed the wall, and stopped before what appeared to Illiana as nothing more than ordinary rock. He reached out to touch the stone, then shook his head before turning and walking towards the cavern entrance. Confused, the elven sith followed him through the winding cave to the open desert outside where he stopped, looked at the sky and the birds flying overhead, then closed his eyes and sighed. This was not the reaction she expected from the human after seeing a jedi at their best. After another moment of silence, she walked up beside him.

"What did you see?" she asked.

Jacen opened his eyes and turned his head to look into hers. "I have seen the worst that can happen…the end of everything." Illiana's jaw dropped. "I was not taken to the past but to a possible future where our enemy had succeeded." He returned his gaze back at the birds flying above them. "It's so refreshing to see living creatures again. To know that it is not too late."

"Too late?" Illiana asked. "Too late for what?"

The human looked back at her and smiled. "I know how to save Azeroth…the jedi…and more importantly how to save my daughter."

"I didn't know you were a father."

"I won't be for another nine months, but we can talk about that another time. For now...we need to return to the temple."

Caidan sat beside Ciara at the table in the council chamber. Across from them Daneel leaned forward in his chair with his hands clasped together on the tabletop. To his left was Demira, Celeste, and Kai'moira while to his right sat Zharn, Kitali, and Olivaw. Cipher and Cheyuun stood guard at the door while the padawans, Grogg and Adaria, remained on the main floor of the temple and absent from the room. Caidan's brother, Scott, had been placed in a makeshift holding cell in one of the storage caves and guarded by four shamans who had joined the order just after the events in Desolace against the Burning Legion. For the past hour the jedi listened to the half elf detail his twin's plan to avenge their sister's death by Illiana's hand. Several times Demira, who was present in Narcis' tomb when the elven sith's memories were restored by her Force vision, shook her head at the realization of just how much the two half elves' lives had been intertwined. Caidan _was_ the little boy who greeted his mother just before Illiana stood up to the old sith lord over twenty years ago. His description of Drakus' lightning storm and how the elven sith had been restrained during that attack was almost exactly the same as Illiana had recalled that day to her back in the tomb. The former mage began to wonder just how many enemies Illiana had out in the world looking for vengeance just like Caidan's brother. Her husband, however, was concerned with other issues when he finally spoke.

"That explains the attack on our newest recruit on the summit," the grand master said looking across the table to the couple. "What I want to know is how all of this is connected to the troll we've seen in different parts of the world. Ciara, you have said that you worked with this woman only to assist your spouse in keeping tabs on his brother, but that is not the whole truth. There is more that you have not told us."

"I can answer that." Everyone turned their attention to Jacen entering the room with Illiana close behind him. One his back was strapped the familiar greatsword, but at his left hip he also wore the hilt of a lightsaber. "I apologize for the interruption, Masters, but I have just returned from the Caverns of Time. I have seen what can happen if the sith and her troll apprentice succeed." The elven sith remained at the doorway as he walked to the table close to Ciara and leaned on it as he looked directly at her. "The entrance to the lift has been blockaded by the Bronze Flight, so how have you been able to get to the facility deep underground? How did Zirani learn to use the equipment there to manipulate the elements so that she can spy on us and sow seeds of discontent across the globe? Where is she now?"

"How do you know about that?" the elven mage asked.

"I've been there," Jacen answered. "I have seen the expansive shafts myself...ridden in the tram cars that link them...I stood in one of the control rooms where dials indicated the almost unlimited power available to the one who controls the facility." He stood straight and looked over to Demira. "I saw your son there, Master. The same son you now carry in your womb." She looked down at her stomach and instinctively touched the slight bulge. Gasps were heard from the other jedi as his gaze met each of theirs. "I have seen the lifeless corpse of a world that Zirani...this troll apprentice...and her master leave in their wake. I know how each and every one of you dies in that future...a future we must avoid no matter what the cost." His gaze rested finally at the grand master. "In that alternate timeline I met with a different Kairoz who told me how to unlock my potential. I know of my connection to the Force and how to realize my full potential. I am ready to join you in this fight to save Azeroth."

Daneel sighed and turned his head towards Illiana still near the doorway. "This was your doing? Temporal mechanics is difficult to understand and time travel a quagmire best avoided."

"I know we do not agree on this, but I felt it was necessary to help him realize his potential," Illiana replied. She stepped towards the table. "I know what it is like to lose a child...to know a loss unlike any other, and I will do what is necessary to help other mothers avoid that pain." She stopped beside the human and stared directly at the grand master. "Think of your own son not yet born. Jacen has seen a world where only he and one other lived...all other life was gone...extinguished...he saw the end of the world! Can you sit there and tell me that his journey through time was not worth the risk so that your son... _your son_...will not have to grow up on a world devoid of _all_ life?"

"And what of other consequences?" They turned their attention to Caidan who was now standing. Ciara's hand gripped his arm trying to pull back him into his chair, but he ignored her. "Look at what has happened at the Dark Portal. _Our_ Kairoz took a criminal through time and brought back the Iron Horde led by orcs long dead on our world. Right now Draenor is reliving a genocidal war all because one bronze dragon thought that bringing back that army would stem the tide against the Burning Legion! What about those friends we lost on Outland now that the timeline has changed? What if some of your own jedi..two who are sitting at this table...had been caught on the other side? Could you accept their absence? Could this order survive it?"

"If the greater good was served then that is a sacrifice all jedi are willing to make," Illiana answered him. "His eyes have been opened, and we know now what we must do to avoid disaster."

"Do we?" This time it was Kitali who spoke. She held Zharn's hand firmly as she spoke. "Right now I know that if I returned to Draenor I can see my father and brother...both whom I have never seen. Right now on that world my mother is pregnant with me. What would happen if I arrived there and disrupted their fates? As much as I would love see both of them...I accepted their deaths long ago. My mother struggles even now and yet she has resisted the temptation to return to that world because it is a pain she does not want to relive. That timeline is not ours! Now you have used time travel to alter our destiny...when does it end? How tempted are you to return back to the Caverns to travel back and save your own children?"

"My sons are dead!"

"So was my brother...my father," Kitali retorted. She pointed to the wall with her free hand. "And yet they also now live on the other side of that gateway. Can't you see? Even with benign intentions that potential to wreak havoc is too great. Gul'dan lives again as does the Shadow Council...the same organization that conspired with the Legion...who spawned the awakening of the Lich King. Horrors this world has survived and yet may have to relive again because those who were defeated have returned. When does the cycle end?"

"Don't lecture me on past horrors," Illiana snarled as she pointed to the draenei. "The Lich King's army is the same who killed my second child and husband."

"You are blind to the truth! That army will rise again!" exclaimed Caidan.

"Enough!" They all gaped at the grand master leaning to his left in his chair with his right arm propped up on his knee. He appeared to be staring at the table. Illiana relaxed while Caidan sat back down. "All this arguing is pointless...what is done is done." He looked up to Jacen. "Since the proverbial genie is now out of the bottle...what do you need to awaken your abilities to their fullest potential?"

"You can't seriously be considering using this information they gained through unnatural means," Caidan countered. "I was taught that the jedi followed the will of the Force. How does time travel fit that?"

The elven sith glared at the stranger. "Just who are you?"

"I am a man who as a boy watched you stand up against a tyrant." She furrowed her brow as he spoke. "You questioned my mother as I clung to her leg just before Drakus arrived. I watched you stand up to him...this small girl against a giant. You dared him to do his worst and then he did by killing elves with lightning. It is a day I can never forget."

The elven sith staggered as she remembered the day when she challenged Drakus' adherence to the old sith caste system. It was the day she realized that her father held power over the same man who treated her like garbage. She stared at the council table as the memories ran through her mind. The visage of him raising his hand to slap her as he had on many occasion before that day, but then she stood up to him and dared him to strike her. Dared him to beat her to within an inch of her life. She recalled the human holding her back as the sith unleashed his lightning storm on the helpless elves surrounding them. The screams of their pain and the smell of their burning flesh assaulted her. Then she looked back to Caidan and remembered the elf woman who had just returned from a spying mission for the dark lord. The small boy who ran up to the woman and held her tightly as Illiana questioned the spy about her life under Drakus. This was the same child? He pulled back his hood to reveal his pointed ears causing her to gasp. It was the same child.

"My father held you back while my half-sister watched. They did nothing to stop the sith, but you...you fought for us. Our lives improved after that day. I was inspired by one who looked like us...fought for us...and when you finally defeated him, you freed us. I have strived since that day to live my life by your example. Drakus was not the only tyrant in the world and we were not the only slaves. All because of what you did that day, and yet to hear you now defend an action that I know that you know in your heart is wrong...you almost sound like him. The ends do not justify the means."

Illiana walked to a nearby empty chair and sat down. She stared at the table as she spoke. "I only wanted to spare others from feeling my pain...sharing my loss."

"We do that by following the code," Daneel said causing everyone to look back at him except the elven sith who continued to stare at the table. "I will not chastise you for doing what you thought was right at the time. I know that you felt you were following the right path, Illiana, and there is no fault in that. I may not agree with your methods, but I also know you were following the light side. I know you will not make the same mistake again."

"You are condoning it?" Caidan asked.

"I am accepting the hand that we are dealt," the grand master replied. "This discussion regarding your past can be continued between the two of you at another time. What we must concern ourselves with now is our current crisis." He turned his head to address the former mercenary once more. "What is it that you need, Jacen?"

"The other Kairoz said that there is a relic that can unlock my abilities, but he did not know where it was...only that Adaria and her brother had found it in their youth and left it where they found it. "

"She is downstairs. Kai...I would ask that you join them in recovering this relic. I want a master with them and especially one familiar with holocrons." The chiss nodded her head and began to rise from her chair.

"It's not a holocron," Jacen stated. "He did not know what kind of relic it was, but it was definitely not a holocron."

"Regardless, I want Kai to join you," Daneel said. She joined the human, and then each with a nod left the room. The miraluka then turned his head to the sin'dorei mage. "You said that you have met this troll in an underground facility?" Ciara nodded her head. "I think it is time I met this apprentice...personally."


	12. Part Eleven: The Boy in the Cave

**Part Eleven: The Boy in the Cave**

Olivaw struggled to find his way through the maze of caves hollowed out of the mountain crevice of the Jedi enclave. He walked up then down, took a left turn followed by a right and down again to another left the whole time his footfalls echoing off the stone walls. He stopped to peruse his map and sighed heavily. Kuro created the maze with the intent that should anyone outside of the order find it they could not discover all of the secrets the jedi kept within. Even with his detailed map of the caverns, Olivaw was completely lost. Maybe he should have turned right instead of left? He backtracked to the intersection and followed the tunnel he should have taken. After the meeting in the council chambers, Illiana had come to these same caves and not returned the rest of the day. He knew where she had gone and was concerned with what he suspected she was about to do. This wasn't the first time she had mentioned it, and he had convinced her before that dismantling her father's lightsaber and constructing a new one was a bad idea. He hoped he could find her before she actually destroyed the heirloom. He stopped at the entrance to the cavern that housed the noetikons and their display console that was created by Daneel and Windi Weathergear. He turned around to walk back to the intersection. Perhaps he should have gone up instead of down. The former smuggler traversed the labyrinth for another hour before he finally found the forging room. The elven sith was standing before the large device used to create lightsabers.

"You haven't already done it…have you?" he asked as he entered the room. She didn't turn to face him as she shook her head. "Good. I heard what happened in the council chamber and knew you'd come here."

"I've allowed the past to cloud my judgement," she replied with a shaky voice. Had she been crying the whole time? "I have to let it go before I make another mistake like the one I made today."

"Destroying your father's final gift is not the answer and neither is forgetting the past. You just have to accept what happened and move forward. Look…although I'm probably the last person you want to hear this from because things between us are different now and the love we shared is gone…"

"I've never stopped loving you, Ollie," she said interrupting him. He cocked his head to the side and furrowed his brow. "I didn't want to burden you with my grief after my memories were restored. It wasn't fair to you…the man who gave up everything for me and yet didn't realize who I truly was until months later. I'm sorry you gave up your old life for a lie…for my lie."

She raised her hand to her face to wipe away a tear. At least that was what he thought she was doing because she still hadn't turned around to face him. He took a deep breath as he walked up behind her and gently grabbed her shoulders. He could see her father's lightsaber resting on the tabletop of the forge and unblemished. She didn't flinch at his touch nor did she resist when he turned her around to face him. He gazed into her eyes, red from crying, and noticed her tear stained cheeks. He bottom lip was indented where she had been biting it. He said nothing as he reached up with his right hand and wiped a tear from the corner of her left eye.

"What if I want to be burdened by it?" he quizzed softly.

"I am not the same woman that I was when you chose to stay on Azeroth."

"You mean emotional and given to fits of anger? Confused about your place within the jedi order? Conflicted with what happened in your past? Can't say anything has really changed. I don't see a different woman now than I did then, Illiana. In fact I see the same woman who came back for me when others had not despite that the fate of the world hung in the balance. I see the same woman who cared about how _I_ felt and worried about _my_ wellbeing. I see the same woman who was worth more than all the millions of reasons to return to the galaxy I once called my home…and if I were forced to make the same decision now as then…I would make the same choice for the same reason. I would stay for _you_."

"Despite the fact that I now remember that I am a widow and a mother to murdered children?" she asked. "You would still choose to stay for me even with all of my emotional scars? Even knowing why I did the horrible things that I did after I accepted the deal from the Avatar?"

"Are you kidding?" He grinned and wiped some of her hair from her face. "We've both lost those close to us. You think I didn't commit some heinous acts when I worked for the Hutts? We have even more in common now than before. Of course I would stay for you…you're just like me. So you see...there's hope for you. I mean…look how I turned out." She chuckled and cracked a smile. "Now there's my girl. I've missed that smile."

The elven sith leaned in and embraced him. "I should've never pushed you away, Ollie."

"The important thing is that you came back," he replied as he hugged her. "Let's just not make this a habit. Okay?"

She chuckled again as she tightened her embrace. "Okay."

* * *

Daneel walked along a dank corridor with Grogg beside him. After the meeting in the council chambers, the grand master convinced Ciara to open a portal to the facility both she and Jacen referred to during the heated exchange regarding time travel. The room they initially arrived in was a small entryway for one of the tram cars. Once inside and after Grogg had translated the Titan instructions, the miraluka was surprised to discover that the controls were not much different than those utilized by the Rakata in his home galaxy. This only served to strengthen his view that perhaps the Titans and the Celestials were one and the same race since the Rakata would have derived their technology from the latter. He noted that the equipment was designed for use by a species much different than any he had encountered in all of his travels to numerous worlds. That was a matter to examine more closely at a later time, however, because their reason for coming to this facility was to find the sith-trained troll. Inside the tram, Grogg found a record of the various trips she had taken within the facility. Of the three locations listed, the dark apprentice visited one frequently which the jedi chose as their first destination. The orc used the hood of his robes to shield his eyes from the strobing effect of the lights along the tram tunnel, but the miraluka was not bothered by them. During the journey, Daneel stretched out through the Force searching for the presence of their foe should she be located within the strange facility. He could not sense her as they rode the tram for two hours before reaching the section the travel log indicated she visited most.

The jedi emerged from the car not into a room as described by Jacen, but a long corridor some fifty yards across and with a ceiling just as high. Large metallic statues of every race native to Azeroth lined the walls for two hundred yards. As they walked the distance to the far end, Grogg noted that of the elven races, only the kaldorei was represented indicating the construction of the facility predated the collapse of the Well of Eternity and the schism that split the race into their modern variations. The corridor emptied into a cavernous room two hundred yards across and with a ceiling almost one hundred yards tall. Along the circular wall were three massive humanoid faces with few details beyond the basic features of a nose, two eyes and ears, and a mouth. The floor consisted of a circular set of twelve downward steps and in the center a large round dais with what appeared to be several types of computer consoles. Daneel remained at the entrance while Grogg stepped down to one of the terminals. After a few minutes, the padawan entered commands that produced a large holographic representation of Azeroth with the single continent of Kalimdor as it was before the Well of Eternity's collapse ten thousand years ago.

"This is fascinating," the orc said as he read the information scrolling across one of the monitors. "The Titans created Azeroth for the sole purpose of imprisoning the Old Gods. We are living on a prison planet. This facility maintained the individual cells with geothermal energy collected from the core. The machinery's exhaust was centered in the middle of the continent, and then they brought life _here_ from all over the universe. Every variety of vegetation…every animal species…all living things and the entire ecosystem on Azeroth was comprised from a collection taken from other worlds and transplanted on this single planet. They knew that the arcane energies of the facility's waste would mutate what life they brought here and apparently all by a very specific design that would evolve and camouflage Azeroth's true purpose from the other Old Gods and their fallen brother…Sargeras."

The grand master walked down the steps and stopped by the orc as he continued reading from the console. "Worry about the history lesson another time. Can you determine what the sith and troll were doing with this facility?"

The padawan continued to peruse the data coming across his readout as he entered more commands into the console. After a minute he looked up to the miraluka. "This is the central command hub for what remains of the facility. According to this, when the Well collapsed it destroyed or rendered inoperative close to sixty percent of it. What does remain is still more powerful…technologically…than everything else on the surface _combined_. They've used this central command hub to locate which outlying and operational substations can benefit them and learned how to use those devices at each location. That second most visited hub mentioned in the travel log? According to this, there is a device that can manipulate the elements into whatever the mind can imagine. It's what the Titans used to create much of the land structures on the surface not already formed by the planet's tectonic plates…deserts, forests, great lakes…whatever they wanted to create. No wonder our world has so many regions neighboring each other in ways that don't make sense…like a desert of sand bordering with a lush jungle region. I'll wager that it's the same device she's been using to follow Jacen across the surface of the planet. Oh, and according to this only the troll has been here. I cannot find any other log entries for another user for thousands of years. It even lists her as _species-troll_ and nothing about _species-unknown_ …if we were to assume that a sith tried to access the facility. I'm even listed now as _unknown-species_ user access number 11478659263."

"Well…she's not here now and I'm certain that Ciara didn't discover this place on her own," Daneel said lowering his gaze to meet the orc's. "Try to find any entry and exit points besides the one that Jacen mentioned from the Caverns of Time. If we can find out how the troll came here, then we could use that to find where she might be located now. If she's not there it should still provide us a starting point to finding her and discover what she's been planning."

Grogg turned his attention back to the console and keyed in a few more commands before he looked back up to the grand master. "Most points of entry have long been destroyed or are deep under the ocean. That leaves only one left near Kalimdor, but you're not going to like it."

"Why is that?"

"It's listed as a lava tube to a volcanic island just off the eastern shores of Kalimdor. Today it's charted but uninhabited. I've been there and it's nothing but lava flows and volcanic ash with massive plumes of smoke rising high into the sky. It's a dangerous place that every pirate avoids because there is nothing of value there."

Daneel smiled as he reached into one of the pouches on his belt and withdrew two silver bracelets, one of which he tossed to the orc. "I guess we'll find out if Windi's new invention works."

* * *

Jacen followed Kai'moira and Adaria through a forested plateau of the Redridge Mountains. After the meeting in the council chambers, he had wanted to spend time with Madelyn. He found her sleeping in her room so instead of waking her, he spent the next hour writing her a letter for when she woke. He composed seven drafts before settling on the one he left behind for her. As he wrote the first versions, he agonized over whether to tell her about the child she was carrying or to let her discover it on her own. Daneel's words about the consequences of time travel worried him, so in his final letter he mentioned nothing about their love child. Perhaps after his awakening then he might know better how to reveal the secret to her, but now as he followed the other two jedi through a mountainside forest he began to doubt that decision. He should have waited and spoke to her when she woke from her slumber. He should have revealed their child growing in her womb. His thoughts were so centered on what he wrote to her that he barely paid any attention to where the two women were leading him, and it wasn't until they stopped at the base of a waterfall that he remembered why they had come to this place…to awaken his jedi powers.

Jacen knew the Alliance held a strong presence in the region, but up this high there were no trails or signs that anyone had ventured this far into the forest. Small birds darted from one evergreen tree to another filling the air with their songs that oddly fit with the rush of the water coming from the majestic waterfall nearby. He pulled back on the hood of his light brown jedi robes as his eyes followed the flight of an orange and white bird that landed on a branch not far from him. Its head darted from left to right before taking flight again. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply enjoying the scent of pine wafting through the region on the calm winds. When he opened them, he looked over at the other two jedi staring at him. Kai'moira wore a white halter top with an angled sash wrapped around her waist. Her dark blue skin seemed more vibrant at this elevation as did the red coloring of her eyes. Beside her stood the kaldorei padawan, Adaria, wearing similar robes as his except dark blue in color. Her long silvery-white hair billowed in the breeze.

"What you seek is in a cave behind the top of the waterfall," Adaria said as she pointed to the top.

"Up there?" he asked following her finger towards the mountain summit. "What should I look for?"

"You will know it when you find it," the night elf replied lowering her arm. "What Aeryn and I discovered up there was so strange and alien that we didn't know what to do…so we returned to our group of druids we were traveling with and reported what we had discovered."

"And they did nothing to investigate further?" Kai'moira asked as she looked over to the padawan. Her black hair was tied neatly into a bun, but she raised her left hand to move a few stray strands from her face and back over her ear.

"What we described…they didn't believe us," she answered. She looked back to Jacen with her silvery blue eyes. "Even now I don't know how to describe it in a way that you would believe me. I can only say that when you find it you will know."

"Any traps that I should know about?" he asked as he gazed at the waterfall. "Anything dangerous?"

"Only what you take with you in your mind," the jedi master answered causing him to look down at the chiss. She too was staring at the summit. "This place is strong with the Force…"

"I can sense it now as well," Adaria added. "I didn't know what it was before, but now that I am a jedi…it explains a few things."

"Like what?" the human asked.

"Aeryn thought I was mad, but…" her voice trailed off for a few seconds. "But I had a vision the last time I was here. I think now I understand it. I saw this moment all those years ago…the three of us standing here…I couldn't see either of your faces but I knew that I had brought a man here to confront something…something from his past. I don't know anything more than that because my brother pulled me from the cave ending the vision. All these years I thought perhaps I was hallucinating from some berries I had eaten…"

"That's not very reassuring," Jacen said with a frown while looking at the night elf still staring at the waterfall.

"Perhaps not, but this moment seems to have been preordained," Kai'moira stated. "What is in the cave to discover was meant for you, Jacen, and no other. Someone or something has foreseen a time when you will come to this exact place, and only you can uncover the secret kept within." She stepped up to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. "You must make the rest of this journey…alone."

* * *

Illiana led Olivaw through the caverns to where they thought they would find the spy, Scott. Before leaving the forge, the zabrak told her of Celeste's confrontation at the top of the mountain near the gravestones of her parents. When she asked why the human was hunting her, he hesitated before telling her about the relationship between the would-be assassin and a woman from her past, Valeria. A flash of darkness crossed her eyes at the revelation of the connection to her elder son's murderer, but only for a second before she calmed her breathing and squared her shoulders. He thought she took the news quite well, and so he then told her of the man's brother who was also present in the valley. She said nothing as she suddenly strode past him and down the rocky corridor. He had to jog in some places trying to keep pace with her but just before the junction that led to the room where Scott was being detained, Illiana hesitated. He saw the worry in her eyes, possibly concerned about how she would react, but then she rounded the corner to face the brother of the woman who murdered Herion. He wasn't sure what they would find or how the elven sith would react upon seeing Scott, but instead of finding the human imprisoned they discovered the two shaman guards, a tauren male and orc female, lying unconscious on the ground and the prisoner gone. She left in a hurry and Olivaw stayed behind to tend to the fallen guards. He knew not to interfere with Illiana when her deep blue eyes turned red.

* * *

Caidan stepped from behind a boulder and ignited the golden blade of his lightsaber. Several yards ahead of him and crouched near the base of a fallen tree, Scott turned his head slightly at the sound of the snap/hiss when the jedi weapon was activated by his brother. He sighed deeply before standing and turning to face the half elf. The younger twin with pointed ears recognized the object in the other's hand, the hilt of a lightsaber once owned by their father. Another snap/hiss and the newly ignited crimson blade cast an eerie glow on the snowy landscape.

"Why do you continue to stand against me, Brother?" Scott asked as the winds picked up speed whipping the dark red robes about his legs. "All I want is justice for our murdered sister!"

"You do not seek justice…only vengeance!" Caidan retorted as he mirrored his twin's stance. Standing legs shoulder width with lightsaber pointed to the ground in his right hand and wearing black robes in the same style as Scott's, his dark hair flowing in the wind as opposed to his brother's bald head, he appeared almost the exact opposite of his twin facing him. "True justice was served when our sister was defeated. A life was given for a life taken…that is the code. Give up this lust for retribution, Brother!"

"You didn't know Valeria like I did," Scott replied. "Her life was not for the abomination to take!"

"You delude yourself," the younger twin stated as he moved to his left causing his brother to counter. "I was kept a slave to ensure our mother remained loyal to Drakus while you were sent to Dalaran because you appeared more human. I only ever first saw our sister that day when Illiana faced the dark lord. She rarely spoke to me in the following years, but I still saw her more than you ever did. I saw the darkness she kept in her heart…I know the scars she kept after Illiana's escape. You never saw the red of her eyes as she lost herself to the dark side of the Force! I was there…I know what it took from her…what it led her to do to a woman who did nothing but befriend her. She took the child's life not as payment for our father's death but to hurt the elven sith…to scar the woman as she had been scarred. Our sister acted counter to justice and her life was given as payment to return the scales to balance."

"Do not speak the abomination's name in my presence! I loved our sister more than you ever did! She wrote to me all of the time and told me often how much she wished I lived back at the fortress instead of the mage's city. She told me about the half breed's mewling and how much she hated being in her presence day after day after day feigning a friendship with that beast!"

"Do you not hear yourself?" Caidan asked as he stopped now where his brother once stood by the fallen tree. "You sound just like him…like Drakus! The same man who enslaved our kind for centuries!"

"Your kind, Brother, not mine! You were left where you belonged…with the long ears while I was sent to live amongst humans…just like me!"

"Our mother was an elf!" Caidan shouted.

"I had no mother!" Scott cried out as he leapt through the air at his twin with his lightsaber raised above his head. Caidan countered to his left, and as their blades clashed he spun on his heel to the right trying to counter the aggressor. The elder twin spun in the opposite direction blocking the golden blade. Sparks flashed in their faces as Caidan stared into the red and yellow eyes of his brother, one fully embracing the hatred of the dark side. He pushed his brother away with the Force and was about to follow with an attack of his own, but the human recovered too quickly. The younger twin was not prepared for the lightning that arced from his brother's fingertips. The bolts of Force electricity engulfed his body causing him to drop his lightsaber into the snow. He writhed in agony and fell upon the still ignited blade of his weapon. The pure energy cut into his right shoulder almost severing his arm. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the sneering countenance of his brother standing over him and the red blade pointed at his throat.

* * *

Zirani stood about a hundred yards from a lava tube in the middle of a field of volcanic rock and ash. The heat in the region was oppressive, but for this moment she could think of no other place to face the jedi grand master she sensed approaching her from behind. She reached up to lower the hood of her black robe and then pulled it all the way to let it fall to the ground at her feet. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. She only wore a halter top and thin skirt beneath the dark robe leaving most of her upper torso bare. She could feel the warmth of the nearby lava flows on her skin. Most would call this place a fiery hell, but in her mind it was the perfect place to face a foe unlike any other she had ever met. She didn't flinch when she heard the snap/hiss of his lightsaber.

"I've been waiting for you, jedi," she stated calmly before turning around to face the grand master. He approached cautiously with his green blade pointed to the ground in his right hand. "At last I will face my destiny."

"Give up your hatred and embrace the light," Daneel answered. She could see in the distance the orc just now emerging from the lava tube. "This is a fight you cannot win."

The troll ignited the crimson blade of her lightsaber causing the jedi to stop his advance. "If it is my destiny to die this day…then so be it." She pulled her lightsaber up before her chest in both hands assuming the opening stance of the Ataru form. "I must know if I am capable enough to face my sith master. If I can best you, then I am ready to take her place as the dark master of this world. No more games with the human mercenary…no more riddles to confuse your order…just you and me on this field of fiery ash…just as the old masters foretold."

"You planned this…all of the conflicts…the taunting of Jacen…everything was to force this confrontation?"

"Yes," she said as she circled to her right. "My sith master thinks I have done all of this because of her bidding…but she is unaware of the secret beneath the surface of this world…unaware of the power it can give the one who can control it. Her desires are unobtainable, but I know the secret to keep the demon lord at bay…and with it I can rule this world. It is what the _true_ master demands…"

Daneel countered her opening stance by assuming the one for the soresu form. "One cannot serve two masters and emerge unscathed."

"I have never truly served Nyrexia," the dark apprentice replied still circling with the jedi. "She would see the world destroyed in her lust for the power of the demon lord, but I would rather preserve it as it was…Zhamul has shown me the way to return the Alliance and Horde to fighting with each other with no more Burning Legion, Iron Horde, or Lich King uniting them under a single banner. When they are at war, then I can stand between them controlling their forces like a puppeteer. I will control the destinies of all life on this world…a _true_ master of their fates. _You_ stand in my way of accomplishing that goal."

Zirani leapt through the air at the jedi. He blocked her attack as she expected, and she reacted to his counter that again she had anticipated. The troll allowed a small smile to cross her lips as they exchanged blow after blow and each as she knew it would happen. The jedi swept low at her legs, and she jumped high and over him to strike at his neck and, as she knew he would, he blocked her blade with his. Their lightsabers crossed and the two combatants facing each other, her smile widened. It was all happening just as the old spirit had shown her it would. If she remained true to the vision, the jedi would succumb to her power. From the depths of that old castle in the Alteracs to this remote volcanic island, her path to power was becoming less of an ambition and more of a reality. She pushed back at him with the Force and took a backwards step to reassume the opening stance of the ataru. The jedi recovered quickly and tilted his head at her apparently confused by her retreat. Again the fight was transpiring just as it had in the vision. Then she felt the push in the Force and flew to the ground several feet from where she was facing the jedi. With a growl she looked to see the orc padawan standing a few yards away with his hand outstretched. She had forgotten about him…he had not been in the vision.

* * *

Jacen walked along the path beside the waterfall and under it to the cave Adaria had discovered in her youth. Knowing that a normal torch would be useless, he pulled an artificial light device from his pouch and activated it illuminating the entrance. The moisture was thick and the floor slick with slimy mud. He took a deep breath before carefully walking further into the cave. After about fifty feet it sloped downward and after a hundred more he noticed the once thick mud near the entrance had lessened to reveal a smooth metallic floor. He held up the flashlight to one of the walls and gasped when he saw that it was not stone but scorched metal. He followed this for another twenty feet to where an explosion had ruptured the wall and created an opening into another room of the _cave_. His connection to the Force was much stronger here, and he remembered that Kai'moira warned him that he could possibly see visions in this nexus. He had to crouch through the hole in the wall, and when he stepped through his foot touched down on the streets of his childhood village. He could feel the heat of the fires burning around him, hear the roaring of the flames and crackling of the wood buildings as they burned, feel the smoke choking his lungs, and he straightened to look directly at his father's smithy ahead of him. He spun on his heel to look back at the cave entrance, but instead of the ragged hole he just walked through he saw the rest of his burning village all around him.

"She told you this would happen," a boy's voice said and he turned back to see his younger self standing just outside of the entrance to his father's forge. "Why didn't you listen to her?"

"Who? What woman?" he asked.

"The one who said the Scourge was coming," he heard himself say. Jacen looked to his left to see a slightly older version of himself dressed in shining armor like he wore when he rode with Teagus the Red. "She told us about the arrival of the younger jedi and then about the return of the sith daughter he defeated in Northrend."

"The same one who warned us about the Burning Legion's presence in Desolace just before the jedi intervened." He turned to his right see himself again only this time older like he was as a mercenary in Silithus."The same one you met again at the jedi temple."

"The woman with no eyes," the boy said causing Jacen to return his attention to the original speaker.

"You mean Cipher?" he asked.

The two older versions of himself walked to the boy and merged with him. "That is not her name," he said now as only the boy and yet with a voice resonating of all three versions of himself. "She has always tried to show us and yet _you_ did not listen to her. Since this day you have avoided the sensations you felt…feared what you could unleash when you watched Arthas murder our family. It was there that day…it's always been there…and yet even now that you remember what it is you still resist."

"I have never felt the Force but just a few days ago," Jacen protested. "But I am ready to embrace it now."

"You still deny the truth," the boy stated as he turned to walk into the burning smithy. "You are blocking it now just as you did then…as you have always done…you are afraid of who you are."

Suddenly there was a blinding white flash causing the jedi hopeful to close his eyes. When he opened them, Jacen saw not the burning village or the boy but an empty corridor leading further into the cliff of the waterfall. He inhaled deeply before taking his next steps.

* * *

Scott stood above his brother still pointing the crimson blade at his throat. Caidan groaned at the edge of consciousness. The elder twin was about to end his brother's life when a bolt of lightning struck his back flinging him over the other's body and into a snow bank several yards away. He recovered almost immediately and turned to see Illiana walking from the jedi temple. Arcs of Force lightning crawled along her arms as she closed the distance between them. He reached out through the Force and felt her power and staggered backwards a step. She was stronger than he had imagined, and her power even rivaled the jedi grand master. Scott swallowed hard as he thought of what to do next for he was not powerful enough to face the murderer of his sister, at least not yet. He only had one option, and with a flick of his right index finger on a band at his wrist, he signaled the only person who could save him at this moment. Illiana continued to stalk towards him until she stood next to his moaning brother.

"You wanted to find me so here I am," the elven sith taunted. She reached out with her left hand, and suddenly Scott could not move as she held him with the invisible grip of the Force. "There was no need to harm the shamans in the caverns…no need to fight this man…if you wanted to face me all you had to do was ask."

"You murdered my sister," he struggled to call out.

"After she murdered my son," Illiana retorted as she stepped closer to him. "My son! A boy who was only four years old! An innocent and helpless child she had never met!" She stopped just in front of him and stared at him with red eyes. "I should kill you for what you have done, but there has been enough death. The cycle ends here and now for you are not strong enough to face me. Give up your hatred…I have."

"It will never be over," he spat at her. "I will avenge my sister's murder or die trying!"

He glowered at her as her eyes changed from red to deep blue. "Have you nothing else to live for?" she asked. He squirmed against her hold of him through the Force. "I was angry with you for what you had done to those in the cave below, but now I can only pity you. Vengeance will only leave you hollow, dark one. Trust me…I know…and so did your sister at the last moment." She lowered her arm and turned away from him. "Your friend has arrived…I suggest you join her and contemplate what I have told you."

As soon as he felt the release of her grip on him, Scott raised his lightsaber and struck at her. He was shocked to discover that she had protected herself with an invisible barrier that he could not penetrate after he struck at her again and again and again. She finally turned to face him with an expression of deep compassion which only infuriated him more. He was prepared to strike a fifth time when he was suddenly pushed back almost thirty yards by her through the Force. He struggled to gain his footing, but the snow was slick and he slipped. When he felt hands on his shoulders, he ignored his rescuer as he scowled at Illiana still standing so close and yet so far from him. When Mayu, his contact that he had signaled, pulled him to his feet, he grudgingly allowed her to guide him further away from his quarry. When the couple had reached the gangplank to her airship, Illiana leaned over the comatose form of his twin brother.

"Give up your hatred and lust for retribution," the elven sith called out as Mayu pulled him further onto her vessel. "Find another purpose for your life…I will never allow you to realize your vengeance…you are not strong enough to face me and I will not submit. Let the past go."

Scott gripped the railing of the goblin styled airship as it floated from the temple summit. He watched as his brother's wife and the alien with horns on his head race from the temple tree to join his nemesis by Caidan's comatose form lying in the snow. Hatred for the elven sith swelled in his heart as did anger at himself for his failure. She was right that he was not powerful enough to face her, but he would continue to train and strengthen his connection to the Force so that when they faced each other again he would be ready to end her life. He continued to stare at them long after they were gone from his sight. Finally he turned and watched as Mayu, a human with flowing brown hair and steel blue eyes, commanded her crew of two male goblins, an old orc warrior with bad eyesight and graying hair, and a dark haired sin'dorei woman. He started to head belowdecks when his rescuer called out to him.

"She's right, you know. Maybe it's best to let go of your need for justice against your sister's murderer."

He stopped at the top of the steps but didn't look back. "I cannot. My sister does not rest while the abomination lives." He started walking down the steps. "The only way this feud will end is with her death…"

"Or yours," Mayu finished his statement as he disappeared belowdecks. She walked to the airship's railing and stared back towards the tree of the jedi that she could still barely see in the distance. "Either way…my heart will be broken if it ever comes to that." She looked up to the sky and closed her eyes. " _Light_ …please help me convince him to see reason…to give up this need to avenge his sister. If he meets that woman again, I fear I will lose him forever. Either in life or death…I will lose the man I fell in love with."

* * *

Zirani raced across the ashen field fleeing from the orc and miraluka. The padawan's presence was not something she had counted on nor had he been in the vision given to her by the ancient sith ghost. Her success depended on that foretelling because it was the last warning Zhamul had told her before he disappeared. She refused to face either jedi unless the battle conformed to the prediction of the Force otherwise she was denying herself the destiny she was promised. Several plumes of smoke rose high into the air where the lava ran into the ocean, and just at the water's edge rested a giant bat tethered to a rock outcropping. She hoped she could reach it before the pursuing jedi caught up with her.

After she recovered from Grogg's Force push, the troll leapt to her feet and began running for the distant shoreline. While Daneel followed directly behind her, the former pirate pursued her by taking a tangent path to the island shoreline. He recalled that there was only one place on the island where a ship could be moored, and although several years had passed since his last visit to the volcanic isle he doubted the shoreline had changed much. The problem with the active lava flows into the water was that it created huge plumes of smoke and ash that obscured most of the island when seen from the sea. Even Kuro would have difficulty landing on the island from any other approach. He arrived just as Zirani was beginning to mount the large bat. He cursed under his breath as he hurried his pace knowing that she would take flight before he could reach her. She was twenty feet up when he stopped and reached back with his lightsaber preparing to throw it when she turned around and pushed him to the ground with the Force. He vaulted back to his feet quickly, but the bat was faster and out of reach. The troll was well out to sea when Daneel emerged from the smoke wall and stop beside the orc padawan.

"I'm sorry, master," Grogg said as he watched their adversary fly away. "I thought I could cut her off, but she was too quick."

"It's alright, Grogg," the grand master replied. "She's given us more information than we had before. There is a sith still alive on this world, but this troll schemes against her. Whatever this _Nyrexia_ is planning, it has nothing to do with the hotspots around the globe."

"I've heard that name before," the orc said still watching the troll who was now a dot on the horizon. "I'm pretty sure I have heard Illiana mention that name before when talking about her father."

"Then we should return to the temple," Daneel stated as he placed his hand on the orc's shoulder. "If this is the same woman, then Illiana might also know something to help us ascertain what she is planning."

"And the troll?"

"I sense that she is waiting for something else. Just after you arrived I heard her mention a vision. Those who utilize the dark side rarely have visions." He reached into the pouch at his belt with his free hand and pulled out a holocommunicator. "Either way we'll find no more answers here."

"Then I don't suppose I could…well…return to that central hub?" Grogg asked with a tusky grin.

"Yes…but not alone," Daneel replied as the image of Demira appeared above the holocom. "First we return to the temple." He turned his attention to the image of his wife. "Hi hon. Bring us home?"

* * *

Jacen continued to walk down the metal corridors of what he assumed was a crashed alien ship that nature had reclaimed and camouflaged long ago. His footfalls echoed off the walls and his flashlight provided the only source of illumination. He passed several rooms that appeared to be sleeping compartments, and in one large room he found several tubes with clear sides lined along the walls. During his trek through the wreckage, the voice of the boy continued to speak to him.

"The Force is neither light nor dark," the ethereal voice of the boy said. Jacen stopped and searched around him for the boy but saw nothing except the corridor. "It is the Ashla and the Bogan…the life and the death…Teloran taught us this truth years ago…explained it to us in ways we never understood from our studies with our father. Millennia of knowledge passed on to us and yet you refuse to recognize it…still refuse to realize what you are."

"What do you mean?" Jacen said as he walked along the dark corridor. "What studies with Father? Is Teloran the name of the miraluka? Is she jedi or sith?"

"She is Luka Sene," the voice answered as Jacen came to an intersection. Following his gut, he took the path to the right. "She was with our father when they pursued them from Alzoc…when they were pulled through the vortex…she has been with you since the beginning…"

"The beginning of what? I don't understand." The corridor took a sharp left turn taking him further into the ancient ship. At an intersection of short corridors the boy stood waiting for him bathed in a white glow and almost transparent like a ghost. "She couldn't have been with my father. He died in the village…"

"Defending it as a jedi should," the boy answered as he crossed his arms behind his back. "The two of us arrived from our studies too late to save him or the others."

Suddenly Jacen was back in the village, but this time he saw his father standing in the center of the town square facing an armored Arthas Menethil. The death knight was holding a sword that appeared to be made of steel and ice while his father held the blade that had been in their family for generations. Or had it been? This was not the way he remembered that day at all. He looked to his right to see hordes of undead circling the two combatants. Then his father reached out as if to push the death knight with the Force like he had seen the jedi do, but the animal didn't move and simply laughed.

"Malcolm relied too heavily on the Force that day," the boy version of himself said as it strode up beside him. "It is created by all living things…but the Scourge does not live and so exists outside of the Force. Today the ways of the jedi failed our father…and Arthas slew him as easily as he had any other opponent." Arthas ran his sword through his father's chest. He didn't cry out as the blood poured from his wound. Jacen wanted to scream, but he couldn't. "The Scourge consumed our village just as it did countless others."

Jacen then found himself standing on the hill overlooking the burning village. In the distance he could see the undead army marching towards its next conquest, the land dying under their feet. He was fully grown and wearing the same clothing he did that day he met Madelyn in Silithus. Beside him stood Cipher, or more accurately Teloran, wearing a strange set of black and silver armor. Over where her eyes should have been, she wore a black headband and her dark hair billowed in the breeze.

"We have arrived too late, Jacen," she said, and as she spoke he began to remember her voice from long ago. "My friend…your father…has perished as we have felt through the Force. The Bogan has taken him."

Jacen closed his eyes as the memories of that day flooded his senses. He recalled running to his father's body and feeling the ancient jedi's life ebb away through the Force. Tears ran down his cheeks as he gazed upon the dead. People he knew all of his life. A short distance away were the bodies of his mother and sister frozen in a deathly embrace as the woman tried in vain to protect her child from the Scourge. Then he returned his gaze to his father lying dead under his hands now resting upon the fallen jedi's chest and bathed in his blood. The Ashla and the Bogan, the life and the death, and his father had passed into the latter. He closed himself to the Force as his father died not wanting to feel his departure from the Ashla. Since then he tried to forget what he had learned under his father and the miraluka woman afraid that if he did then the sensation of his father's death through the Force would return. Odd that of Malcolm's children only Jacen was Force sensitive. As much as he tried to ignore the power within him, the nightmares persisted as a reminder of what he was and who he was meant to be. When Jacen opened his eyes he found himself again looking ahead to the image of the boy standing in the corridors of an ancient jedi vessel.

"The Ashla and the Bogan are a part of our existence that cannot be ignored," the boy stated.

"But they are more than life or death," Jacen replied as he began to recall the teachings of his father. "The ancient jedi on Tython believed that Ashla was the light and the Bogan the dark as represented by the moons of Tython."

"Two beliefs sharing the same names…which one is correct?" the boy asked.

"Neither is correct and yet both are accurate," he answered. "The Force cannot be simplified in such a way. It is neither light nor dark yet it has light and dark aspects…it is life and death…it unites the universe and yet tears it apart…it has a will of its own and yet needs to follow a guide…it is a paradox that cannot ever be fully understood…only acknowledged and embraced."

The boy smiled as he began to disappear. Jacen continued forward until he reached what appeared to be the central command center of the ship. Standing in the center was the miraluka he knew until a few moments ago as Cipher. In her hands she held a small cube about the size of a fist. He stopped near the entrance, and she smiled as she raised the device towards him.

"This was your father's holocron," she said. "It will remind you of what you have forgotten."

"How did you know to come here?" he asked.

"I have always known, son of Malcolm. Since the first day we arrived on this world thirteen hundred years ago I have known that this day would come. Always in motion is the future, but some visions given by the Force are never wrong." She stepped towards him still holding the cube in her hands offering it to him. "It was why he made this so many centuries ago."

"You had a vision about this day?"

"Not mine…your father's," she replied. "He foresaw that his own child would witness his death and only his voice from beyond the grave would enlighten the path for this child. He did not know at the time if you would be a son or daughter or how many years would pass, but he always knew that this day would come. When the Scourge claimed his life, I knew you were the child in his vision and this was the time. And now I fulfill my role as he foretold."

"Why the deception?" he asked as he took the holocron from the miraluka's hands. "Why not just tell me who you truly are?"

"Because in his vision you were led here by a jedi," Teloran answered as she withdrew her hands and lowered them to her sides. "I am Luka Sene…not a jedi. It was Daneel and his order who would lead you here. When I found his wrecked ship years ago, I boarded it and learned about my home and what had happened in the centuries since I left it. I assumed the identity of an Imperial spy so that I could more easily enter their compound and find you. As far as Daneel knew, he was the only one of our species on this planet, so just introducing myself was not an option for he would have never believed my true identity. The deception fulfilled its purpose to get me close to you once more."

"Why did you wait so long? You were there when father was killed."

"I left you to grieve," she replied. "When I returned…Teagus had already arrived and taken you under his wing. By then you had already refused to listen to the Force and forgotten what I…and your father…had taught you. I tried to keep up with you, but after a time you didn't want to be found. It wasn't until I felt your tremor in the Force once again that I was able to find you…amongst the same jedi I had hoped to bring to you. The rest should be pretty clear now." She sat in one of the chairs and patted a hearthstone lying on the console beside her. "A small gift from an old mage I met centuries ago, and a way to always return to this place when the time came." She looked down at the floor. "I know that the sith survived the purging in my home galaxy…the wars that have erupted since our departure centuries ago. I cannot change that, but with your help I can finish what your father and I set out to accomplish on this world. There is one sith remaining here." She looked up to him wearing a determined expression. "I can finally finish what we started. Together we can purge the evil of the sith from this world once and for all. After so many centuries I will finally fulfill my destiny and join your father…my friend…in the Bogan."


	13. Part Twleve: Exodus from the Enclave

**Part Twelve: Exodus from the Enclave**

"Just imagine," Grogg said as he followed Daneel through a magical portal back into the jedi enclave in Northrend. "Everything we have thought about this world...its origins...the Titans...all of it pales in comparison to the truth we've discovered."

"But are you certain that your interpretation of the data is accurate?" the grand master asked. Ahead of them was the usual activity of jedi and visiting dignitaries running around the compound, but the miraluka noticed something slightly off. People from the Alliance and those of the Horde were actively avoiding each other with jedi dispersed with both groups. "Can you be one hundred percent sure that your translation is correct?"

"I can't be _that_ sure," the orc padawan answered. "I'm eighty percent...okay...seventy...more like sixty-five. There were a _lot_ of the words I didn't know, but in context I deduced what made sense. That's why I want to go back and learn what I can."

Daneel stopped and faced the orc. "And what if you find out that you were wrong in your assumptions?"

Grogg held his chin up as he faced his former master. "The search for truth and knowledge is more important than my pride," he responded. "If I am wrong then I am wrong...I can accept that. If a more learned scholar finds that my interpretations are inaccurate and translation false, then so be it. But the discovery we've made...I feel...is extremely important. By learning more we may ascertain why Sargeras is so obsessed with our world and why he keeps returning. It could help us better understand the Old Gods and why the Titans imprisoned them deep underground and on this world. We could learn why Neltharion was seduced by them and perhaps how to prevent another former Aspect from falling under their sway again. The dragons are our friends..."

"Enough, my friend," Daneel said as he reached up to grasp the padawan's massive shoulders. "You are approaching this situation as a jedi. The search for knowledge is important, but never let its pursuit consume you and develop into an obsession. When it becomes that, our perceptions are distorted and we may not recognize the truth. I am glad to see that you are prepared to accept it should you discover it might be counter to what you initially uncovered." He released the orc's shoulders and looked back towards the jedi temple tree. "For now, however, something is wrong here. I can sense tensions have risen in our absence. "

Grogg gave him a somber nod before following the grand master to the giant tree. During their trek they could hear murmurs from the visiting dignitaries about a murder in the compound and the jedi scattered amongst them trying to sooth tempers. They saw wild eyes in some visitors as they stared at those from the opposing faction. Those murmurs turned to shouting within the temple with Zharn acting as an intermediary between those people from the Alliance and those from the Horde as they yelled and pointed fingers at the others. When the shaman saw the miraluka, he shook his head and nodded towards the upper levels with his chin. It only took a sideways glance by the jedi master for Grogg to join the elder orc in trying to preserve the peace inside the greeting room. Daneel left them and ran up the stairwell to the council chambers. The shouting coming from the large room was even louder. He slowed his run to walk through the doors finding Kitali and Cheyuun on one side of the oval table holding back an outraged human diplomat from Stormwind and across from them Demira and Olivaw trying to block the orc from Orgrimmar who was attempting to crawl across the table to reach his counterpart. They both turned their attention to the jedi as he approached.

"You!" the Horde diplomat shouted. "You told us this was a place of peace! And yet while you were off gallivanting after some _rumor_...a human has murdered an orc and a tauren!"

"The murderer is not of the Alliance!" the Alliance diplomat countered and pointed at Daneel. "He was one of them! Do not place the blame on us!"

"He was _no_ jedi!" Cheyuun bellowed with a slam of his fist on the table. The human looked up warily at the tauren glowering down at him. "That man was an imposter and a prisoner. Do not blame our order for the murders of _ou_ r friends."

"Scott is gone," Demira stated looking at her husband but still trying to block the orc diplomat. "We confiscated his lightsaber, but apparently he either had one hidden or someone brought him another. During his escape, the two shamans we had guarding him were killed."

"Where is the brother?"

"In the medical wing," she answered. "He tried to stop Scott and confronted him up on the summit. Daneel…they fought and Caidan lost…he'll probably lose his arm." Then as if anticipating her spouse's next question, "Ciara is with him. She did not assist the brother."

"Celeste and Kuro are pursuing him," Olivaw offered. "A human woman commanding a goblin zeppelin rescued the traitor from the summit. Kuro had just returned, and so the two immediately took flight, but that goblin ship is unusually fast and already out of Kuro's sight when they left. It's unlike any other type of airship we have encountered or that Windi has heard of with some sort of propulsion that rivals our speeders."

"You never told us there was a black dragon amongst you!" the Alliance diplomat shouted shaking his fist at Daneel. "Their ilk murdered thousands of humans and tormented many more. We saw it fly from the top of the mountain, and we've already alerted Stormwind to its existence. We will hunt it down and destroy it like we did the rest of its kind!"

"That is one point that we can agree on," the Horde diplomat said as he backed off the top of the table.

"Kuro is trusted by both the Red and Emerald Flights," Daneel said with a slight wave of his hand. "That should be sufficient to convince you she poses no danger to either the Alliance or the Horde."

"Dragons cannot be trusted," the human scoffed. "Some were known to pursue the death of humans and our allies for centuries. One even posed as an influential mage in the Kirin Tor for decades never revealing his true nature until it was discovered. A wolf in sheep's clothing! No…the word of any dragon is not sufficient."

"Too many times a dragon has endangered mortals because we are insignificant to them," the orc added. "They do not _think_ like us. Since our lives are short in comparison, they see us as little more than children or beasts in the fields. Our lives and concerns do not matter to them unless in those very rare circumstances ours intersects with theirs and they _need_ us. If they do worry about what happens to us, they have a very strange way of showing it. Wrathion preaches to any and who will listen that the end of the world is near and gives very little details about how he knows this or how to stop it. That's probably because he is planning it himself!"

"And how often has a dragon gone _insane_? The Red and Emerald Flights' acceptance of a black dragon just goes to prove they value the lives of their own kind over those of the rest of the races of Azeroth. Perhaps they too have gone insane by _forgiving_ a Black dragon. You know the Blue Aspect went insane and started a war that almost destroyed the world? His replacement has even disappeared to who knows where…probably plotting our demise like his father. Then there was Deathwing's whelps. Every one of them wanted to wipe out _all_ life. Black dragons have fooled us before, posing as human nobles, and that must never happen again! We will hunt it down and destroy it…that is the only solution to guarantee our safety," the Alliance diplomat stated.

"Kuro can be trusted and is one of us…a jedi. She values a peace between the races of the world as much as I do," Daneel replied. "I assure you that she poses no danger to either of your governments or their citizens."

"You'll have to forgive me if I don't trust the word of a _jedi_ right now," the human said as he left the table and stalked towards the entrance. "I am returning to Stormwind as are the rest of my fellow emissaries from the Alliance." He left the room without even a glance back at the grand master.

The Horde diplomat followed his counterpart. "That is another thing that he and I agree upon, _Grand Master_. This enclave is no safe haven for members of the Horde. The murders have proven that…a travesty that apparently will go unpunished from our perspective." He stopped at the door and turned back to the jedi. "The Horde will remember this day and the injustice that happened here. From what I have witnessed…the jedi have _no_ honor." He then left the room with a huff.

The others left the council chamber in pursuit of the dignitaries leaving Daneel alone with his thoughts. He walked slowly to the table and leaned over it trying to understand how their endeavors to bring peace to the two governments could unravel in such a short time. Worse was that neither the Alliance nor Horde would trust a jedi after this day, and the order would have to work even harder to gain any of it back. The exodus of the emissaries took less than an hour. After Desolace, Daneel had hoped that the jedi and their location could help usher a time of peace for Azeroth. The Horde and Alliance both needed it and actually wanted it even if neither side openly admitted that fact. The battle against the Burning Legion was proof that peoples of both sides were willing and capable of placing their differences aside when faced with fighting to protect a world that both called home. Everything they had achieved here seemed to indicate a lasting peace was possible, and then a single act of violence destroyed everything. After a few minutes alone, he left the council chamber and walked to the upper level and the traitor's room. After a cursory examination, all appeared to be in order except for a section of the wall that had been hollowed out and the picture that hung over it was lying on the floor surrounded by shattered glass from the frame. On the neatly kept bed lay a single lightsaber with a black plasteel hilt. The jedi could feel the damaged crystal through the Force, and with a sigh he left the room and walked down the winding stairwell to the ground level. Half an hour had passed since the diplomats stormed out of the temple, and Daneel watched for a moment as lines of people stepped through open portals to Stormwind and Orgrimmar. Demira and Kitali still listened to the dignitaries' shouting as their people fled the enclave.

The grand master walked across the temple grounds to the secret caves where their technologies and supplies were stored. Unlike Olivaw, Daneel used the Force to guide him through the labyrinth of tunnels and caverns until he stood in the same room where Scott Daniels had been held prisoner after the attack on the praying orc on the summit. He examined the walls trying to determine if his escape was something he engineered on his own or if he had assistance. The entry was sealed by a force field created by Windi Weathergear. Daneel found two of the contacts for the energy barrier had been tampered with, but even with those two damaged the field should have remained solid. He then knelt on the floor and ran his fingers along the stone trying to find any cracks that might have created gaps in the cell, but again he found nothing that could have led to the force field's failure. His only conclusion was that it had been deactivated from the outside. He sighed deeply as he stood, and then he remembered that he had not looked up to the ceiling. That was where he found the crack along the left wall. He followed it with Force Sight. It wasn't very large or deep, but just big enough to hide a single lightsaber. He rubbed his chin as he thought about how the man could have engineered the escape alone. With the hidden lightsaber he could have shorted the energy barrier, or used any of several techniques to trick one of the guards into shutting down the force field. Neither possibility would require outside assistance. Even more disturbing was that the shamans were new enough to the order that they may have been unprepared for facing a foe armed with a lightsaber or shielding their minds against the influence of the Force. He commanded them to guard the prisoner, part of the blame for their deaths belonged to him.

"Cipher is missing," Illiana said behind him causing the thoughtful jedi to return his sight to normal before he turned around to face the elven sith. "We noticed her disappearance just after you and Grogg left to find the troll. I take it you found her?"

"We did and confronted her, but she fled before we could get any answers," he replied and then pointed at the crack near the ceiling. "Did the spy help him escape?"

"We don't think so. I was down here with Ollie, and this was after we noticed that Cipher had gone missing. He was telling me about the confrontation on the summit and the twin's obsession with me personally, so I ran here and discovered Scott had escaped. Ollie stayed with the guards and they were still alive as I followed him back up there and faced him on the summit after he nearly killed his own brother. It wasn't until we brought Caidan back here that Ollie told me the shamans had died shortly after I left them. One suffered a fatal blow from a lightsaber, the other's windpipe had been crushed most likely through the Force. I have seen that technique and used it myself…neither lived very long after the escape."

"Caidan was my first suspect before you mentioned Cipher's disappearance. Despite their differing points of view, they are still brothers," Daneel stated turning his attention back to his fellow jedi. "And the wife?"

"Doubtful because she was with Demira all afternoon talking about magic," the elven sith replied. "She's now with Caidan in the medical wing of the temple. He's probably going to lose his arm. Windi is already hatching a plan to create him an artificial one, but she needs Kai's help to make it work."

"Grogg could assist with the biological part," Daneel offered. "And Ollie knows a little about cybernetics. He had a crew member back on Corellia that had a couple of artificial limbs and quite a few implants." He looked back up to the ceiling and pointed. "I found a damaged lightsaber in Scott's room and there is a crack up here just large enough to conceal another. Could he have anticipated his capture, resulting imprisonment, and then concocted his escape by himself?"

"He easily could have." She walked into the cell and looked up to where he pointed. "If he is working with the sith that has been seeding the hotspots that have concerned us, he just created another one right in our own backyard. A genius tactic if he planned it…certainly beneficial to the sith if he didn't," She looked back down at him. "I'm more inclined to think that he may have figured he would be imprisoned after killing me… _if_ he succeeded. Knowing that we jedi imprison instead of execute…I surmise he planted the lightsaber here for his escape." She looked from the room into the tunnels. "The _line_ between justice and vengeance can be difficult to see. Those who cross it can find themselves in a very dark place…I know this all too well. Caidan's brother now walks a similar path as I did for so many years. He is blinded by his hatred. I can only pity him for what he endures having experienced that same cloud of vengeance myself."

"You want to try and save him," the grand master said behind her. She turned to see him standing with his arms crossed over his chest. "I understand. I would feel the same were I in your shoes, although I would suggest not pursuing him alone. His lust for retribution makes him very unpredictable."

Illiana nodded. "I won't go alone. I already have someone in mind to take with me as I try to find him."

"Ollie?"

"No," she replied with a small smile. "This Scott is too dangerous to have Ollie with me. Too much of a temptation for…distractions." Daneel released a chuckle. "No…I am thinking of taking either Kuro or Celeste. I thought I might ask them when they return." She started to walk towards the tunnels and stopped. As she looked back towards the miraluka she said, "I saw Grogg before I came here. He said something about the sith being named Nyrexia, but that is impossible. That woman died two centuries ago."

"Are you certain of this?" Daneel asked. "There were several hundred sith lords that were not tainted…"

"I am positive," she replied interrupting him. "She was the wife of my father when they first arrived. My husband's people were her prisoners for many years before Talisora defeated her. There were no others with that name aboard the _Vindictive_."

"Could she have cloned herself like Selene? After her defeat she could have transferred her essence to another body."

"That is possible," Illiana stated as she looked up at the ceiling in thought. "She was close to Varok for a time…she could have convinced him to make her a clone just in case she was killed by some sort of misfortune…"

She stopped in midsentence for several moments. "What?" Daneel asked.

Illiana shook her head before looking back at the miraluka. "Sorry…I just wish I had Father's holocrons. He encoded everything about the sith on them. During my dark years I misplaced them somewhere and I cannot remember where they might be. I've been trying to recall what I did to them ever since that day my memories were restored…but it seems that is one thing I cannot remember. I have been struggling with this because I know they can help us find this woman…Nyrexia or some imposter using her name. Father left clues to every base and every location they lived at since their arrival on this planet. I feel that one of those holds the clue to where this woman is and what she is planning." She looked down at the floor as her brow furrowed. "I remember something about a tomb for one of the original twelve lords…I took at least one of them with me when I searched for it because I used Father's descriptions of the locale as a guide. I remember a desert…possibly Tanaris."

"I thought the Avatar kept you secluded at Drakus' base for those ten years before our first encounter."

She looked up to him with a sly grin. "I would sometimes regain my memories and leave. I know it drove him crazy…me too for that matter because I was still struggling with my pain…but I did escape from time to time when his control over my mind was weakest. I think those were times he was focused on some other part of their scheme to break N'Zoth from his prison." She turned back to face Daneel. "We need to find those holocrons, Grand Master. I know right now is perhaps not the best time for the jedi to be spread apart, but I feel this is the most important piece of the puzzle to understanding this sith. If I am to pursue and save Scott…"

"I will send Adaria after them along with some of the new ones we recruited after Desolace," he said with a smile as he relaxed his arms to his sides. "We still have allies and more jedi now than we did before our encounter with the Burning Legion."

"That is true," she agreed with a nod. "Though it's regrettable that all that you strived to achieve here has been lost in just a matter of hours. I am sorry that our efforts to bring peace to the Alliance and Horde has failed."

"It's no worse than what I had when I first arrived just a few years ago," Daneel said with a grin that caused the elven sith to laugh. "And this is a setback…not a failure. We'll just have to rebuild as the original jedi have many times over twenty millennia."

She pursed her lips as she nodded. "I'll make a recording of what I can remember for Adaria and whomever else you send after Father's holocrons." She took her hilt from her belt and held it up between them. "His last visit apparently was a one-time deal. I could use his guidance right now." She turned and started walking towards the cave entrance and stopped just before entering the tunnel. She looked up to the ceiling and said, "You hear me, Narcis? Any insight into where I lost your gifts? Now would be a good time to tell me that I was a bad girl and where to find my toys."

"That's not quite how it works, I'm afraid," Daneel said after a moment of silence.

"I know," she replied looking over her shoulder to him with a smile. "I had to try, though."

She left him alone in the cave. He looked back at the walls and smiled. The dignitaries had surely all left by now, and like Illiana he hoped that her father's holocrons could help them find the sith calling herself Nyrexia. He decided that he would send Adaria on the mission to retrieve the holocrons of Narcis, and then remembered that she was with Jacen and Kai'moira in the east. As he started to walk out of the cave his thoughts began to focus on the human and missing miraluka spy. Where had Cipher gone? Was she following Jacen as the troll had been? What was her role in all of this?


	14. Part Thirteen: Freedom is an Illusion

**Part Thirteen: Freedom is an Illusion**

Zirani's bat landed in a secluded valley in the barren mountains south of the Caverns of Time in Tanaris. She didn't bother to tether it instead opting to remove the harness and setting the animal free. This location was remote, but even a large bat in the region could attract attention she didn't want. The Caverns were located straight north about fifty miles, but dragons possessed excellent eyesight and could see her mount if left behind. The tomb she came to visit had remained undiscovered for half a millennia so she knew none of the locals ever ventured far into this mountain range. Lord Zhamul of the Sith was killed by those tainted with green skin while defending the base that was later transformed into his tomb. She had discovered the ancient burial site by accident over twenty years before when she found herself lost in the desert during one of Nyrexia's many trials for the troll acolyte. She had been fighting off the silithids that inhabited the region after venturing too close to one of their nests. With her lightsaber and the Force as her weapons, she fought off wave after wave of the bugs until suddenly they stopped attacking her. At first their retreat puzzled her, but then she saw the sandstorm rolling on the horizon. It overwhelmed her just before she reached the outer edges of the mountain. The winds were deafening and sands bit into her skin. She couldn't see anything and fumbled with her hands to keep in contact with the rocky terrain as she searched for cover from the storm, and in her blindness she stumbled upon the entrance to Zhamul's tomb.

The sith-trained troll walked past lines of stone statues of different beings from Azeroth and worlds she had only been told about. Each depiction stood with hands steepled before its chest and head bowed in reverence to the man buried here over five hundred years ago. Her footfalls echoed in the chamber off the stone floors and walls. They looked the same as they had two decades before, the passage of time having changed nothing in the tomb. Even the strange torches placed periodically along the walls still burned casting an eerie purplish blue glow in the room. She walked straight for the semi-circular staircase that led to the dais where the dark lord's sarcophagus sat untouched for centuries. At the base of the stairs she stopped and looked over her shoulder to the entrance. Despite that she was still essentially in the middle of the desert, she was cold now just as she had been the first time. She shuddered and turned back to stare at the top of the dais. Surrounding the sarcophagus were four candelabras that had burst into blue flames. With the same grand entrance as he had twenty years before, the ghost of Zhamul appeared at the base of the staircase before her.

"It has been some time since anyone trespassed my burial chamber," the ghost said as his ethereal voice echoed in the tomb. "In fact, you were the last to step foot in this room. What has happened in the past two decades that drives you here once more, acolyte?"

Zirani furrowed her brow. "You spoke to me just a day ago, Lord Zhamul, when I called out to you…"

"I am consigned to this room, Little One," he interrupted. "I have not spoken to you or to anyone for twenty years." He looked to one row of statues and then the other before centering his gaze back on her. "While it is true that I can see beyond this prison…I cannot interact with anything or anyone beyond the outer door that leads to the desert. That is my punishment and my burden. To even join with the Force as the jedi do is denied me." She started to speak but he raised a ghostly hand stopping her. "You must've been visited by Krenn…The Deceiver. He always loved his little tricks of the mind, and yours is as open to me now as it was all those years ago when you first came here. Did he show you my warning again?Was it distorted? Did he tell you it was your fate and path to true power and freedom?" He lowered his hand as a wry grin crossed his lips. "Of course he did. You seek the end of your servitude to your master, but after all these years you still have not heeded what I told you…seen the truth of the warning I gave to you all those years ago." He turned and started walking towards the sarcophagus. "Leave, child. I have no patience for those who will not listen."

She knelt on the floor and bowed her head. "I am here now, Lord Zhamul. I am here to listen and learn as I should have the first time." She looked up to see the ghost had stopped midway up the stairs. "I have faced the jedi from your vision…the one you gave me the first time I came here. The battle was almost the same as you had shown me…"

"That was no prophecy I showed you, girl," he said turning back to face Zirani still kneeling. "It was a warning."

"But my freedom is so close…I can feel it."

"The freedom you seek…that _all_ sith have sought since the first dark lords…is an illusion."

Her shoulders slumped as she stared at the floor in shock. Suddenly the world changed around her and she found herself kneeling on a rock outcropping on a barren world. The dark lord stood near the edge overlooking a valley lined with colossal statues much like those in his tomb. He stared ahead of them at the reddish orange sky with an ignited crimson bladed lightsaber in his left hand and pointed at the ground. The air was stale, and as she followed his gaze a flash of bright light almost blinded her. After a few blinks she saw high in the sky several giant triangular ships rising. Flashes of green lights sprouted from several points on each of them and into the heavens above. Red flashes rained down upon them as if the gods were lashing back at those aboard the vessels firing their weapons into the sky. Large plumes of fire and smoke erupted from the hulls of those ships as the red flashes impacted them. She turned her head at the sound of an explosion close to them just as one of those struck the head of a nearby statue. She stood to watch the head plummet to the ground crushing hordes of people running through the valley. Her eyes followed the survivors' path, and turning her head she watched them fleeing towards a giant pyramid at the end of the valley. Thousands more poured through the open doors at the base. Then just as suddenly as the world had changed, everything froze.

"Korriban, homeworld of the sith," the ghost of Zhamul said as he appeared beside her and joined her in looking back at the temple of the sith race. "This day was when I experienced fear…true fear…for the first time in my life."

"Nyrexia has told me of this day," she whispered as she stared at her surroundings in awe. "Words have no meaning now that I have seen this."

"But this is just a fraction of what happened that day," the ghost replied. "We were led to believe that we could fight a weak opponent who valued peace…who would be an easy target to conquer. Instead of a fearful prey…we woke a sleeping giant. The Republic, despite their love of peace and equality for all sentient species, proved much more powerful than we imagined. We won the battles in the beginning of this short war, but in the end their retribution was terrible and swift. And the jedi…their hatred for us was exposed this day…more than we ever thought possible by their order. Yet in the end I cannot blame the Republic or the jedi for what happened for we brought this upon ourselves. In our pursuit of power and ultimately freedom, as taught to us by the Sith Code, we opened ourselves to annihilation. Our destruction was the result of our false belief in a code that promised the unobtainable…no one can ever realize _true_ freedom."

Suddenly the world around them changed again. Zirani now stood on the shores of an island. High above in a darkened sky filled with frozen flashes of green lightning flew airships of both the Alliance and Horde. Many more sailing vessels approached from the sea. Some of those forces had landed and were already embroiled in battle with the army of the Burning Legion. Giant infernals hurled molten demonic stones that upon impact with the ground launched warriors of both sides into the air. A group of dreadlords had unleashed their fel hounds upon several trolls who had just landed a raft on the shore. She looked down to her right and stared straight into the vacant eyes of a human from Stormwind with a grisly looking spear sticking out of his chest. Blood still trickled from the corners of his mouth. Before her the ghost of Zhamul reappeared as he scanned their surroundings.

"This happens now," he said solemnly. "While you and your master scheme against the jedi and Sargeras, he has unleashed his armies upon the world once more. This isn't like Desolace, Little One, but unlike any attack since his first ten millennia ago. He means to destroy this world once and for all. Not to conquer, but to annihilate."

"But…the talisman that Nyrexia is creating…"

The old sith turned his head towards her and laughed. "You think that Sargeras is unaware of her plan? His power is beyond her comprehension. She believes that she can control him through the amulet just as Karness Muur did those who possessed his talisman. She is a fool and so too are you if you believe she can succeed. The demon lord will devour her as he has countless others, or bind her to his will and use her as he wishes." The ghost walked past her and away from the shore. She turned to follow him. Around them were scores of men and women from both sides of the conflict frozen in battle. Some caught in their death throes. "He doesn't want the rakghoul plague for this world, but for others," Zhamul continued. "Nyrexia refuses to acknowledge that he has forgotten more than we could ever know. She is as blind as another who fights on this field of battle. Beware the Champion of the Light who cloaks himself in darkness."

"That's an odd warning coming from a Dark Lord of the Sith," Zirani said as she leered at him.

"It is true that I used that same ruse in my time before the exodus from Korriban," the ghost declared. "But unlike this Illidan, I knew the path I walked and embraced it. He would tell you he has taken the powers of his enemy in order to defeat him, but what happens should he succeed in defeating Sargeras and his Burning Legion? What will this _hunter of demons_ become once he achieves his goal and destroys his enemy? He proclaims he has made sacrifices to save those endangered by the demonic army, but who will save them from him? I can truthfully tell you that embracing that much darkness comes with a heavy price that must _always_ be paid. He maintains control now that he faces his foe, but what about when that foe is no more? What will his focus be then? This is a question that should concern all those who fight beside him…who call him ally…who will someday be forced to call him enemy once more when his focus becomes the same as the foe he conquered."

Zirani looked down at the ground awash in blood and gore as she contemplated the old sith's words. Her right hand balled into a fist, and she felt the stray thread of her sleeve against her finger. Her eyes darted to it as she thought about pulling it free. She should ignore it but knew that every time it would brush against her skin it would send waves of annoyance through her mind. Better to rid herself of the distraction now.

"Go ahead and pull it," Zhamul said drawing the troll's attention and waving his right ethereal hand around them. "I won't judge, but is does seem like such a trivial annoyance when surrounded by all of this."

"Get out of my head, old man." She relaxed her hand and turned her gaze back to the frozen battlefield around them. "It is nothing."

"Of course it is," he replied with a grin. "It means nothing and yet in the back of your mind you still want to pull on it…to rid yourself of its distraction." She jerked her head to glare at him. "You know the truth when you hear it, child. Even that small thread deprives you of what you consider true freedom. It will occupy your thoughts until you rid yourself of it. Then of course pulling that thread will loosen others that you will pull until eventually your robes are tattered and you are forced to discard it for a new one. Then finally you will be free, except that is the deception for soon the new robes will have a loose thread and thus the process begins again robbing you of your precious freedom."

"Nonsense," she countered as she returned her gaze to the soldiers and demons locked in battle. She tried to ignore the thread and the fact that he was entirely correct. Then the battlefield dissipated until she was standing back in the ghost's tomb. The ground shook as dust and pebbles fell from the ceiling. From outside she could hear the sounds of a distant bombardment. She sprinted to the entrance and stopped upon seeing a large vessel, not unlike those she had seen on Korriban, flying high in the sky while firing green balls of energy at the ground. A large circular portal had opened in thin air allowing hordes of demons through to assail their target, Gadgetztan. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized what she was witnessing. The Legion had returned to Azeroth!

"This is happening now…at this very moment," Zhamul said beside her. "The Burning Legion's invasion has begun." He walked in front of her, but she couldn't take her eyes off the ship or the flow of demons through the portal. "Both factions have lost their leaders and new ones have taken their places. This world has not seen the Legion attack like this since their first encounter thousands of years before we arrived. Tell me, child, how your struggle for freedom from your master feels now that you are standing in the presence of your enemy…your _true_ the power of your foe. Do your goals pale in comparison when witnessing just a fraction of the Legion's might?" He pointed to the battlefield in the distance. "That right there is why freedom is an illusion. No matter how much power you attain…no matter how many you subjugate to your will…there will always be something or someone that will try to take it from you. Even the most powerful sith emperors were bound by the wellbeing of their subjects…of the Empire. They were never trulyfree as the code says we can have…it was always a lie. In one scenario you are bound to protect what you have gained and in the other you are bound to protect those who rely upon your power for their survival. Both leave no room for _freedom_ …at least not the kind that you or any other sith for thousands of years have ever dreamt of attaining."

She finally took her eyes from the ship flying over the goblin city and to the ghost before her. "Are you suggesting I should adopt the ways of the jedi? Become a protector of the weak and innocent?"

"Their teachings are as flawed as ours," he said with a chuckle. "To only follow the light side and neglect the other aspect of the Force? How can one _ever_ understand the Force if they choose to ignore parts of it? How can it be your ally in a fight against the likes of the Burning Legion if you only acknowledge half of it and not the whole? The truth is that the Force is neither light nor dark and so only embracing one aspect or the other is folly. It is a living thing that binds all others together and yet also tears them apart. You are as bound to its will as it is to yours…a symbiosis that cannot be denied…and yet by only embracing part of it _denies_ that simple truth. I have had centuries alone in this prison to contemplate that much." He lowered his hand as a warm smile crossed his ethereal lips. "I am saying that you should ignore the teachings of the sith and the jedi. Listen to the Force to follow your own path and choose a fate that is yours to make. Accept the fact that the freedom you hope for is impossible to achieve. Embrace the Force to protect the world you live in and forge your future on terms that you can live by. Live not by the tenets of the sith or the jedi, but by something of your own creation that utilizes _all_ aspects of the Force. Only then will you fully understand it and your place within it. If that role is to become a protector of those who cannot protect themselves…so be it." He pointed back to the battle behind them. "Regardless of what your role might be, that out there is something that demands your immediate attention…not the jedi or their allies nor the machinations of your foolish sith master. The Burning Legion is here _now_ …and they mean to end _all_ life. As a Force user you must know what that means and it should terrify you. No matter which path you choose or what your role in the Force might be, first and foremost you must face the threat posed by _them_. Should the Burning Legion end all life then it will also mean the end of the Force, and without itwe are _nothing_. This was the warning I gave you the first time you stood before me, and now it is an awakening. Protect the Force from the Legion!"


	15. Part Fourteen: A Jedi Reborn

**Part Fourteen: A Jedi Reborn**

Outwardly Jacen still sat in the command chair of the old starship and stared blankly at the small cube resting in his right hand, but in his mind he raced across a field of tall grass and only a boy of eight. He could feel the deer running beside him and hear its primitive thoughts. Any other human would have scared the animal, but Jacen's connection to it through the Force calmed the deer as it ran playfully beside a friend and not a predator. The mystical energy field also enhanced the small human's speed allowing the youngster to keep pace with the naturally much faster animal.

"Feel its heartbeat as you race through the pasture," Jacen heard his father say in his mind. "You have successfully calmed the creature and from this day forward it will always see you as a friend and ally despite the simplicity of its thoughts compared to ours. In its playful exhilaration it may lose focus and push itself too far, so you must be mindful that it does not over exert itself. As a jedi this is your duty and responsibility to this animal because of your connection to it."

The boy laughed as he increased his pace only half listening to his father's advice. The deer ran beside him and snorted, but Jacen knew that it was the animal laughing with him. Then the scene changed abruptly to the inside of the family smithy. Malcolm stoked the fire as Jacen held the raw steel over the flames. He remembered this day almost two years before Arthas and the Scourge arrived to ransack the village. The steel he held would be forged into a new sword for one of the nearby nobles. The elder Thorne had earned a reputation of being the finest sword maker in Lordaeron, so Jacen possessed many memories like this with his father. Malcolm was a muscular man, and his son marveled at his large arms flexing as he worked the bellows with sweat glistening in the glow of the flames on his dark skin. The elder Thorne nodded with his chin, and Jacen turned the steel over in the flames. It was glowing a reddish orange, not near hot enough to begin shaping. The boy's eyes wandered to the strange sword hanging on the wall behind his father's massive shoulders. He had seen Malcolm hold it before and swinging it effortlessly. In his hands the four foot blade seemed quite small, but to Jacen the weapon was massive and heavy. He could barely lift it off the ground.

"When you are older and wiser it will be yours, son," the ancient jedi said as he worked the bellows. Jacen's eyes darted to his father's face. He continued to look down at the flames as he pumped the large handle trying to increase the temperature of the fire. A wry smile had crossed his lips. "It is much older than I and created by a race long extinct. I doubt we could ever replicate it on this world." He let out a chuckle. "Actually, I doubt we could've duplicated the craftsmanship back home, truth be told."

"I wish I could see it, father," Jacen said as he turned the steel in the flames again. "To see _all_ of those worlds that you tell me about at bedtime."

"So do I, son," his father replied. "But with your training…in time I believe you might see all those and more through the Force if you listen to it long enough. It can give you visions…of the present…of the future…of the past…even of worlds far from here."

The scenery changed again. This time an older Jacen stood on the bridge of the starship. Ahead of him in the pilot's chair sat a strange bald woman with blue skin and two long tentacles sprouting form the back of her head and hanging down her back. In the opposite chair sat a light skinned male with no hair and horns sticking up along his crown. In the viewport he could see stars, more than he had ever seen in the night sky. A large silver dot darted from left to right. Jacen heard footsteps coming behind him and turned just as his father, wearing long brown robes with a hood pulled over his head, walked right through him. The miraluka, Teloran followed.

"Have we found them?" his father asked stopping just behind the horned man.

"They just popped out of hyperspace," the other answered. "That interdictor device worked perfectly." The co-pilot turned in his chair to look up at Malcolm. "I still advise caution, Master Jedi. That ship has to have at least a few thousand sith aboard, and there are only fifteen of us."

"We're not going to engage them for battle," his father replied. "We just need to stop them long enough to place the tracking device on their hull. Then Republic battlecruisers can do the rest."

Jacen listened to the exchange while watching the stars move slowly in the viewport as the ship flew closer to the silver dot growing larger ahead of them. After a few seconds, the former mercenary could see details forming of a large triangular ship.

"Something's wrong," the pilot declared drawing everyone's attention. "They've repowered their engines."

"So soon?" Teloran asked. She turned her head to his father. "Perhaps the interdictor wasn't entirely effective?"

"I…" Malcolm started just as the other ship stretched unbelievably long before disappearing in a blinding flash. Everyone, including Jacen, was forced to cover their eyes momentarily. When Jacen looked out the viewport again, the other ship was gone, but a large hole had emerged in the field of stars that was ringed by a violent ring of reds, oranges, blues, and purples. The ship buckled beneath their feet, and Jacen stared at his father as the tiny vessel was pulled toward the giant abyss.

"Spatial rift ahead," the pilot stated calmly as she hammered on the controls. Beside her the co-pilot did the same. "The gravitational pull is too strong. Our engines will overload long before we have enough power to break free."

He could feel the panic from those around him including his father. As the ship was pulled into the rift, Jacen was again blinded by a flash of light. When he regained his sight, he saw before him the village burning and younger version of himself hunched over his father lying on the ground and bleeding from his chest. Then from the far side of the town square marched Teagus and his men. The younger Jacen grabbed the ancient sword and leapt to his feet. Teagus and his men stopped as the boy turned and faced them. His chest heaved as he struggled to hold the large weapon in both hands. Teagus, his hands beside is round belly and reddish brown skin darkened by the surrounding fires, stepped towards the child. Jacen closed his eyes remembering that day, then opened them widely when he heard himself say something he did not remember.

"I will destroy you, Arthas! You and all of your soldiers!"

Jacen stared in shock as his younger self stood tall holding the sword effortlessly in his right hand and holding his left towards Teagus who was now trying to pull himself from the ground. A few of the other soldiers had backed away, but one stepped forward to stand between his leader and the boy. He was clad from head to toe in steel armor. Arcs of lightning sprouted from the boy's outstretched fingertips towards the guardian, and the metal shell only served to cook the flesh of the man inside as the electricity engulfed him. Jacen recoiled in horror not remembering any of this at all and hoping that the vision was showing him a false past, but deep in his mind he knew this was what really happened that day when his family was murdered by the Scourge. His own fingers began to ache as he watched the boy unleash the dark side of the Force on men he would learn to call friends. The phantom pain intensified as he watched the guardian, a man he later learned was Teagus' own son, slump to the ground in a smoldering heap. His mentor had not mocked him this day as he had told Madelyn, the man really had surrendered to his younger self after witnessing his magical power. Jacen wanted to vomit.

Seeing the lightning attack and Teagus, a man he looked up to for most of his adult life, cowering on the ground as his son died horribly sent a chill down Jacen's spine. The scene froze around him as he looked down at his right hand expecting to still see the blood of his father, but it was clean. He closed his eyes and sighed heavily as he recalled the power that coursed through him that day and the hatred he felt towards the soldiers when they arrived. His pain was transformed into a blind rage when they came upon him leaning over his father and staring at all of the blood pouring from the wound. After Teagus' son fell, he heard the voice of Malcolm in his mind as he warned of the dangers of the dark side of the Force. Jacen the boy had dropped the sword to the ground and wept which only further confused the soldiers…all except a mourning Teagus. He knew the boy's pain and instead of killing the murderer of his son, he adopted the newly orphaned child. Because of what he had done, Jacen refused to use the Force after that day. It was hard to ignore something that had become an integral part of him the first couple of years, but over time and living amongst Teagus and his men Jacen was able to tune out the nuances of the Force until finally he had forgotten all about the mystical energy field that was always around him…always a part of him.

"You used the dark side the day your father died," Jacen heard Teloran say. He opened his eyes and stared at the holocron resting on the console before him and then to the floor. The vision was over and he was back in the ship. "I suspected as much when I saw the knight's body and the scarring on his armor. I've seen the results of Force lightning before."

Jacen's eyes looked up to the blindfold of the ancient miraluka. "I kept thinking of those last words father said to me before Teagus arrived with his men. 'There is no death, there is the Force.'"

"The last line of his code."

"Perhaps," he replied as his eyes turned to stare at the floor. "All I could focus on was death…and all the blood. I didn't even try to see if Teagus' men were the same army that destroyed my village. I saw their armor and vowed to kill them all." He looked back into Teloran's face. "I had so much power…so much rage…and I unleashed it…all of it. When it was over and I saw what I had done…"

"You were afraid," she said as she kneeled down before him. "You had never experienced the raw destructive power of the dark side before and it frightened you." She reached up and took his hands in hers making him look again into her blindfold. "You feared what you had become, but what happened that day has never changed who you truly are. Your heart remains pure. Your mind is your own and not dominated with lust for power. You don't have to be _afraid_ of who and what you are any more. The Force is awakened within you once more…embrace it."

"How can you be so sure?" he asked quietly. "I loved my father and fell to darkness when he died. I felt him leave…I _felt_ it…I felt his passing when he exhaled his last breath!" He withdrew his hands from hers and stood causing her to fall back on her haunches. "I know that if the same were to happen to Madelyn…I _know_ I would not be capable of controlling myself." He took two steps and then turned back to face the Miraluka beginning to stand. "Especially now that I know she carries my child. If anything happened to her or the baby…I _will_ fall to darkness again."

"You are older now…wiser," she retorted. "You know what the Force is and that…"

"Death is death…there is nothing else beyond that! I do not have Illiana's strength, and look at what she did before she returned to the light. All the pain and suffering she caused before finding herself again and _that_ took the help of others. I cannot…will not…"

"How can you be so certain after all I taught you? How can you still believe that after what you witnessed in the ancient castle and met the ghost of Galen?" Jacen spun on his heel towards the rear of the bridge to see his father standing in the doorway with his arms crossed behind his back and a pleasant smile across his face. The ethereal form of Malcolm addressed his son. "I have watched you since I left this plane of existence, my son, and ached seeing you suffer with the pain of my departure. Many times I have tried to reveal myself to you, but you weren't listening."

"Father," the younger Thorne whispered as he reached towards the ghostly form shimmering before him. "I was listening. I was hoping that I would see you again, but…"

"When you cut yourself off from the Force, you were deafened from my pleas. I could not reach you," the ghost answered. "It is through the Force that I can speak to you now. We are luminous beings, Jacen, and not the flesh that enslaves us in your current plane of existence. Your lover and your daughter…they are also beings of the Force. Fear not their passing from this realm, my son, for it is a single plane of existence that we occupy for only a brief time. And for others that time is lessening. You must embrace what you are. Become the jedi I taught you to be."

"I don't understand," Jacen said cocking his head to the side.

"An ancient evil has returned," Malcolm replied. "It threatens not only those you love, but all life on this world. It disrupts the balance that must be restored." He uncrossed his hands and glided towards his son. "I had hoped to spend more _time_ to teach you, but I am afraid the enemy moves too quickly. Instead I will hasten your awakening by giving you all that I am and all that I know." He reached out to touch Jacen's outstretched hand as Jacen's eyes widened in fascination and shock. "This was originated by dark arts, but for us it will suffice. I will join with you, my son, in order to save this world."When the ghostly hand of the father touched the mortal hand of his son, a blinding light permeated through the room. Teloran was forced to cover her face as the two Thorne men became one through the ancient forcewalking ritual.

* * *

Adaria stood near the edge of the cliff staring into the valley. High in the sky flew a large wedge shaped ship that hurled bolts of green fel energy at the villages below. The vessel orbited a large rift in the sky swirling with the emerald energies of fel magics. The invasion by the Burning Legion had begun. The arrival of the demonic army was swift and sudden. The sun was beginning to set when Kai'moira had begun setting up the tent while Adaria built a campfire. Neither jedi knew how long they would spend in this location while Jacen searched the cave behind the waterfall, so they had settled down for the night and was eating their evening meal in the glow of the campfire when everything darkened. Even the fire grew dull as if light itself had been pulled from the flames. Both women jumped from their seats as the dark pall fell across the mountain, and then the chiss spotted the rift open in the sky. That was hours ago and while Adaria, with her superior night vision, watched the events unfolding in the valley, Kai'moira had alerted the rest of their order via holocom. In fact the jedi had been receiving reports from allies across the globe and all reporting similar incursions by the Legion.

Despite that both women deep inside wanted to run down and fight off the demons, both also knew that they could do nothing against the army pouring through the portal. The plan from that point was to wait for Jacen to return and then portal back to the jedi compound to join the rest of their order. Once together they should be able to formulate a plan for their counter to the invasion. After three hours of watching the carnage below, the padawan wanted to race up the mountain and retrieve Jacen so they could join the fight, but it was the chiss who restrained her. However, even Kai's patience was wearing near the fourth hour. She was about to relent to the night elf when they both spotted Jacen approaching with the miraluka spy behind him. Adaria reached for her lightsaber, but the elder jedi stayed her hand.

"Cipher, how did you get here," the chiss asked when the two arrivals stopped near the campfire. "I thought you were back at the enclave in Northrend."

Teloran opened her mouth to respond, but Jacen stopped her with a wave of his hand. "Her deception was necessary," he said.

"Necessary how?" the night elf padawan asked in a menacing tone. "Lately there has been a lot of _deception_ we have been blind to…"

Jacen looked at her and smiled. "It was necessary because she came to this world with my father over thirteen hundred years ago." Adaria and Kai'moira exchanged confused glances before looking back at the new jedi. "The reason is unimportant for now, however, and the explanation would take too long…time is running out," he said pointing behind them and at the rift still open in the night sky. "The real enemy of Azeroth has returned. You must return to the temple and warn the others."

"They already know," the chiss replied. "We've been waiting on you to return from the cave. Now that you are back we need to portal to Northrend. You both need to explain this to Daneel no matter how much time it takes."

"We won't be joining you," Teloran stated flatly.

"Why?" the night elf growled.

"Our prey still remains," the miraluka answered.

Adaria began to protest, but again Jacen stopped her with a wave of his hand. "One sith remains that must be stopped. We are certain she is involved with the Legion's invasion, but we are not sure how." He stepped towards the chiss. "The sith you knew are not the same as the one we hunt. She is from a different time and has a temperament unlike those living in your galaxy now…pragmatism is lost to her." He turned his gaze to the night elf. "My friend is also from that time as was my father who is now with me. And before you ask…it is by an ancient ritual that his ghost joined with me. I know what he knows." He stepped back to address both women. "The Legion's return is your responsibility…mine lies along a different path. We must finish what was started centuries ago."

"Are you sure of this?" Kai'moira asked. "I know what ritual you refer to…forcewalking…its origins come from darkness. I do not trust this sudden turn of events…"

"I am certain," he replied with a nod and a smile. He then reached into his robe and withdrew an envelope which he handed to the night elf. "Please give this to Madelyn when you return to Northrend. I also want her to have my old sword I left back in the compound." She accepted the note and placed it inside a pouch at her waist. Jacen smiled as he spoke again. "This is the last time we will see each other, my friends. Where Teloran and I go…we most likely will not survive…and we accept this. Facing the sith is our responsibility…the last duty of a pledge made long ago."

"Perhaps hers, Jacen, and your father's…" the chiss began.

"My father's is mine as well, Kai," he said interrupting her. Teloran had begun leaving the campsite, and he turned to follow before stopping and looking back at his fellow jedi. "I knew this day would come…my father told me so even though I had forgotten. Tell the Grand Master that I have remembered what I was always meant to be…and that had circumstances been different I would have followed him eagerly. However, my fate awaits me in another part of the world and the Legion demands your response. Remember that there is no death…there is _only_ the Force." With a final nod, Jacen followed the ancient miraluka into the darkness leaving the confused jedi staring after them from the glow of the campfire.


End file.
